Three killed, 14 injured in Turkey bomb blast

A bomb set off by suspected Kurdish guerrillas killed three people and injured 14 others today in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated south-east as militants intensified their fight for autonomy in the region.

Authorities were investigating whether a suicide bomber carried out the attack in the south-eastern city of Van, bordering Iran, the state-owned Anatolia news agency reported.

The blast, near a supermarket, heavily damaged a municipal vehicle and shattered the windows of several other vehicles and nearby houses and businesses, Anatolia said.

Ambulances ferried the injured to local hospitals as police and paramilitary police forces were deployed at the site.

Kurdish guerrillas have escalated their attacks recently. On Monday, suspected rebels killed four police officers in an ambush near the south-eastern city of Batman and detonated a bomb under the car of a military officer in the town of Idil in Sirnak province. The bomb attack injured one.

Guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, have recently escalated their attacks in the region, while Kurdish militants believed linked to the outlawed group have staged several bombings across Turkey during the past month.

The fighting has killed more than 37,000 people since 1984.