Suspected Car Bomb Rocks Ankara

[High_Gravity]

Turkey: Suspected Car Bomb Rocks Ankara

ANKARA, Turkey — A car bomb went off near a high school in the Turkish capital on Tuesday, killing three people in a nearby building and wounding 34 others, authorities said.The prosecutor's office said the blast was a terrorist attack.

"The explosion occurred in a place where car and people traffic is intense. It looks like the intension was to inflict as much harm to people as possible," Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said.

The parked car was purchased a week ago but it was not yet registered. Police detained a woman at the scene who shouted "long live our struggle!" as she was escorted away by police, Dogan news agency video showed.

Kurdish rebels fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey have recently escalated their attacks on Turkish targets. Islamist and leftist militants have also carried out some bombings in this NATO member and U.S. ally.

Kurdish rebels were blamed for a small bomb attack in the Mediterranean resort town of Kemer that wounded 10 people, including four Swedes on Aug. 28. Turkish warplanes bombed suspected rebel hideouts in northern Iraq last month in response to the escalation of attacks by the guerrillas.

The bodies of three people were found in a building near the car that exploded in downtown Ankara, Sahin said.

Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said police had information that a bomb was planted on the car.The explosion sparked a series of blasts in adjacent vehicles.

Reyhan Altintas, a neighborhood administrator, said she rushed outside after hearing a loud blast. It was followed by three other blasts, apparently caused by cars catching fire.

"I had never heard anything like it in my life," witness Adnan Yavuz said of the initial blast. "Then came another explosion and parts of a car dropped from the tree."

Turkey: Suspected Car Bomb Rocks Ankara

 

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Turkish Car Bomb Attack: Kurdish Militant Group, Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, Claims Responsibility

ANKARA, Turkey -- A Kurdish militant group on Thursday claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack near a school in the Turkish capital that killed three people and wounded 34, a pro-Kurdish news agency reported.

The Firat news agency said the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, an offshoot of the autonomy-seeking Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, claimed Tuesday's attack and threatened more bombings in Turkish cities, warning that the explosion in Ankara was "a start."

The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons also claimed responsibility for a small bomb attack in the Mediterranean resort town of Kemer that wounded 10 people, including four Swedes on Aug. 28, Firat said.

The group vowed more assaults in retaliation for what it called Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government's "war" against the rebels, according to Firat.

Turkish warplanes have carried out airstrikes on suspected PKK targets in northern Iraq – where the guerrillas maintain bases – following stepped up attacks by Kurdish rebels in recent months. Dozens of members of the security forces and at least seven civilians have died in rebel attacks since July.

The PKK itself has denied any role in the Ankara bombing. The main Kurdish rebel group has always distanced itself from violent attacks by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons in Turkish cities. The militant Kurdish group was responsible for a series of bombings in Turkish resorts in the 1990s.

Earlier, suspected PKK rebels killed one policeman and wounded another one in an attack in the country's southeast, authorities said.

The rebels opened fired on the policemen as they chatted with shop owners in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the Kurdish-dominated southeast, said city's governor, Mustafa Toprak. Two civilians were also wounded in the shooting.

Turkish Car Bomb Attack: Kurdish Militant Group, Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, Claims Responsibility