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Bombs rock southeastern Turkey, no casualties, Turkey
reinforces troops |
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Bombs rock southeastern Turkey, no
casualties, Turkey reinforces troops
22.4.2006
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DIYARBAKIR,
Kurdistan- Turkey, April 22, 2006, -- Two homemade
bombs exploded in the mainly Kurdish city of Batman
in southeastern Turkey (Kurdistan-Turkey) overnight,
causing material damage but no casualties, local
security sources said Saturday.
The bombs, placed in front of two shops 500 metres
(yards) apart from each other in the centre of the
city, went off at 3:00 am (OOOO GMT), blowing out
the windows of nearby buildings, the sources said.
It was not clear who had planted the bombs.
Southeastern Turkey has been the scene of a 22-year
armed conflict between the Turkish army and the
outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which
picked up arms against Ankara in 1984 for Kurdish
self-rule in the region.
More than 37,000 people have been killed in the
conflict.
Several recent bomb explosions in Turkish cities
have been blamed on the PKK and a radical off-shoot
since late March, when a week of deadly Kurdish
riots rattled urban centers in the southeast.
Meanwhile the Turkish army has deployed thousands of
troops to the country's southeastern corner,
preparing to intensify operations against separatist
Kurdish rebels who have stepped up violence in the
region, the press quoted officials as saying Friday.
"Military units in the region have been reinforced.
The operations will continue in a determined and
intensive manner," an unnamed general staff official
told the mass-circulation Sabah newspaper.
Clashes between the army and the separatist
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) have markedly
increased over the past several weeks, which also
saw deadly Kurdish riots in urban centers and
bombings in western Turkey blamed on the outlawed
group.
The violence shattered a period of relative calm in
the southeast where, analysts say, the PKK is
seeking to re-establish itself after calling off a
five-year unilateral ceasefire in June 2004.
The reinforcements, including elite commando units,
have been deployed in areas along the borders with
Iran and Iraq, from where the infiltrations of PKK
rebels usually increase with the arrival of spring,
the daily Aksam said.
An additional 10,000 troops have been deployed to
the area, bringing to 50,000 the total number of
soldiers there, it said.
Most PKK militants, whose numbers are estimated at
about 5,000, retreated to bases in the mountains of
northern Iraq in 1999 after the group declared a
unilateral truce following the capture of its leader
Abdullah Ocalan.
The number of armed PKK militants on Turkish
territory has exceeded 2,000 for the first time
since 1999, the daily Vatan said.
The deployment precedes a visit to Turkey on
Wednesday by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Ankara has repeatedly urged the United States to
crack down on PKK bases in northern Iraq, but
Washington says its troops are swamped by violence
in other parts of the country.
Like Turkey, the US and the European Union consider
the PKK a terrorist organization.
Despite Ankara's frustration with US reluctance over
military action against the group, Turkish diplomats
say intelligence sharing between the two countries
is improving and Washington is supplying information
on PKK infiltrations into Turkey.
They say US efforts to cut PKK's financing channels
are also under way.
Prior to the US-led occupation of Iraq, the Turkish
army carried out incursions into northern Iraq to
pursue the PKK.
The Kurdish conflict in Turkey has claimed more than
37,000 lives since the PKK took up arms for
self-rule in the southeast in 1984.
AFP
Southeastern Turkey: Northern Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey)
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