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Turkey: Istanbul street explosion leaves
31 injured
17.4.2006
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Istanbul - A bomb
explosion on a busy pedestrian street on the
outskirts of Istanbul wounded 31 people on Sunday,
police said, in the latest violence to strike Turkey
in recent weeks.
Istanbul's police chief Celalettin Cerrah said two
civilians were in critical but not life-threatening
condition and had been rushed to hospital for
emergency surgery. He told reporters at the scene
two plainclothes police officers, patrolling the
area, had been injured from broken glass.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Istanbul - a popular tourism destination - has been
struck by a series of bombings in recent weeks amid
the worst street riots in more than a decade in
Turkey's mainly Kurdish south-east, which left 16
dead.
Scores of soldiers and rebels of the separatist
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have also been killed
in separate clashes.
The bomb had been placed in a garbage bin in front
of shops, cafes and kiosks in the busiest part of
the pedestrian street in the Bakirkoy district on
the European side of Turkey's largest city and near
the international airport.
The blast blew out windows of stores in the street.
The street was closed off and forensic experts were
examining the area.
"Our friends are working. An assessment will be made
according to the information received," Cerrah said.
Police fired into the air to disperse angry
residents who initially thought a person taken in by
the police was a bomber. Police said the person was
a witness.
The Kurdistan Liberation Hawks (TAK), a shadowy
group which has ties to the PKK, has claimed
responsibility for a series of deadly bomb blasts in
Istanbul. TAK, formed by former PKK guerrillas, has
warned of further attacks.
Militant groups, including Kurdish separatists,
Islamists and ultra-leftists, have carried out
attacks on civilians, security and military targets
in Turkey in the past.
Security has been stepped up across the country,
which is seeking European Union membership. The
armed forces have also moved a large number of
troops to areas near the border with Iraq ahead of
an expected offensive against PKK rebels.
More than 30 000 people, mostly Kurds, have been
killed in the separatist conflict since the PKK took
up arms against the state in 1984 with the aim of
carving out an ethnic homeland.
The European Union and the United States, like
Ankara, view the PKK as a terrorist group.
Reuters | AP | News Agencies
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