Suspected Kurdish rebels detonate roadside bomb

A roadside bomb exploded in Turkey today as a military vehicle used to carry soldiers and their children passed by in a predominantly Kurdish city, injuring 13 people including five soldiers, police said.

Authorities blamed Kurdish rebels for the explosion, which was detonated by remote control.

The bomb went off on a road near a military barracks in the city of Hakkari, a police official said.

The official said the vehicle was used to carry the children of military officials to school and back.

The semi-official Anatolia news agency said the injured included children but did not say how many.

TV footage showed ambulances and military vans leaving the scene, carrying the injured to hospital.

Clashes between soldiers and the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, have intensified recently.

Close to 40 rebels and some 14 soldiers have been killed in fighting since the start of the year.

Turkey’s military has boosted its troop presence in the predominantly Kurdish south-east and massed soldiers on Turkey’s borders with Iraq and Iran in an effort to prevent rebels who have bases there from infiltrating into Turkey.

The PKK has been battling for autonomy for more than two decades in Turkey’s south-east.

The clashes have killed some 37,000 people since 1984.