Turkey: Supermarket bomb injures 12

A bomb exploded outside an Istanbul supermarket today, injuring at least 12 people, officials and media reports said.

Istanbul Gov Muammer Guler said at the scene that the blast was apparently caused by a bomb left at the supermarket.

One of the injured was reported to be in critical condition, private NTV television reported.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which came five days after a Kurdish militant group claimed credit for a bomb attack at an internet cafe in the city.

That attack killed one person and injured 15 others, including seven policemen.

Tensions have been high in Turkey with the approach of the seventh anniversary of the capture of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan on February 15.

Yesterday, about 600 Kurdish rebel sympathisers clashed with police and set a bus on fire to protest the solitary confinement of Ocalan.

Since his capture, Ocalan has been kept on the Imrali prison island, near Istanbul.

Kurdish guerrillas have been fighting for autonomy in the south-east since 1984, a battle that has so far claimed 37,000 lives.

The European Union and the United States consider the main rebel group, the Kurdistan Workers Party, of PKK, to be a terrorist organisation.

The Kurdistan Freedoms Falcons, a militant group believed to be linked to the PKK, claimed responsibility for Thursday’s bomb attack at the Internet cafe.