Turkey: Suicide bomber kills four on minibus

A suicide bomber blew himself up today on a minibus in the Turkish tourist resort of Kusadasi, killing at least four people.

Governor Ali Baris of Kusadasi, 45 miles south-east of the port city of Izmir, said the blast killed at least four people and injured 14, including several who were in a critical condition. Earlier reports had said five were killed.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but Kurdish rebels have recently carried out bomb attacks in Aegean resort towns.

Earlier this month a bomb hidden in a soda can wounded 21 people, including three foreign tourists, in the Aegean coastal town of Cesme. On April 30, a bomb in a cassette player killed a police officer and left four others wounded in Kusadasi.

There were no reports of foreigners being killed or wounded in today’s blast.

A Kurdish guerrilla group that called itself the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons Organisation or TAK claimed credit for both attacks and vowed to maintain attacks against tourist areas.

Since 1984 the Turkish military has been battling rebels of the autonomy-seeking Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in the overwhelmingly Kurdish south-east, a conflict that has claimed some 37,000 lives.

Fighting in the region tapered off after a rebel truce in 1999, which followed the capture of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. But there has been a surge in violence since June 1, 2004, when the rebels declared an end to their cease-fire, saying Turkey had not responded in kind.

TAK is believed to be linked to the PKK.