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Turkey: Turk police raid houses as bomb
death toll rises 13.9.2006
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DIYARBAKIR,
Kurdistan-Turkey, September 13, -- Police raided
houses on Wednesday in a major security clampdown in
Diyarbakir, largest city of Turkey's mainly Kurdish
southeast, after a bomb blast killed 11 people, five
of them children.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the
blast late on Tuesday at a bus stop in the city,
which has been at the centre of a 22-year conflict
between Turkish security forces and rebels fighting
for a Kurdish state.
"Our grief is great for the victims of this terror,
especially as our children have been the victims,"
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told a gathering of
regional leaders.
The explosion is the latest in a series of attacks
in Turkish cities, including tourist resorts, which
have killed at least 16 people and wounded about 100
in recent weeks.
The Kurdistan Liberation Hawks (TAK), a separatist
militant group which claimed responsibility for
attacks in late August, has threatened to turn
Turkey into "hell".
Witnesses said Tuesday's blast, apparently triggered
by a mobile phone, tore a hole half a metre (yard)
across on the pavement and shattered the windows of
nearby houses and offices. Firemen cleaned up
bloodstains at the site.
"When I looked out I saw a bloodbath. Everyone
wanted help. But there was no sound coming from some
of the children whom I saw," said resident Mahmut
Coban, who was sitting at home at the time.
Hospitals were treating 13 people wounded in the
blast, which occurred at 9 pm (7 p.m. British time)
on a main street next to a park. On Tuesday,
authorities put the death toll at seven but the
number rose to 11 overnight after victims died in
hospital.
Police raided several houses in the Baglar district
where the blast took place and blew up as many as 10
suspect bags in controlled explosions. No devices
were found in the bags.
Police also set up checkpoints on roads leading out
of town.
PERPLEXED
Residents were perplexed by the blast, given local
support for separatist rebels. The Human Rights
Association in Diyarbakir issued a statement
condemning the attack.
Police said they believed the device was set off by
mistake and may have been intended for a police
headquarters 1.5 km (one mile) away.
The NTV news channel reported Diyarbakir Mayor Osman
Baydemir as saying the attack was an attempt to
sabotage efforts by Kurdish politicians to end
separatist conflict in Turkey.
The explosion occurred a day after Turkey's main
Kurdish political party, the Democratic Society
Party (DTP), called on the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) to declare a ceasefire.
TAK and militants of the larger PKK oppose Ankara's
policies in the Kurdish region.
Last month, TAK bombed a busy shopping area in the
coastal resort of Antalya, killing three people and
wounding dozens. That blast followed four bombs in
the Mediterranean resort of Marmaris and in Istanbul
that wounded 27 people.
Separately, police detained four people on Wednesday
in the town of Koycegiz near the Mediterranean coast
over an alleged plot to kill four former generals,
including Kenan Evren, who became president after a
1980 military coup, CNN Turk said.
It said maps showing the generals' houses,
explosives and automatic weapons were seized in the
raids. Police tightened security for the generals
after the arrests.
The PKK took up arms in 1984 with the goal of
creating a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey.
More than 30,000 people have since been killed in
the conflict.
Far-left and Islamist groups have also carried out
bomb attacks in Turkey in the past.
Reuters
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan".
Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan but
unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag is
banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it is
a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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