Five killed in Turkey car blast

A car bomb aimed at the Turkish military killed five people and wounded 68 - including 30 troops – in the Kurdish-dominated Turkish city of Diyarbakir.

A bus carrying the troops was passing a five-star hotel when suspected Kurdish rebels detonated a remote-controlled car bomb, authorities said.

It was the deadliest attack by suspected Kurdish rebels on soldiers since the killing of 13 in a rebel ambush in October last year.

Five civilians were killed today, including two students who were leaving a building where they were taking courses for university entrance exams. The charred bodies of the two victims could not be identified, reports said.

Thirty soldiers were among the 68 people injured, said Diyarbakir Governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu.

The blast occurred about 200 yards from the guarded gate of a military housing complex and the soldiers were returning to their homes from barracks outside the city, the state-run Anatolia news agency said.

The bombing triggered an inferno that also burned at least four cars in the street behind the five-star Dedeman Hotel next to a military helicopter landing zone and the city’s only Burger King restaurant.

Firefighters battled the blaze for more than an hour. Dozens of ambulances rushed to the scene and medics raced to treat the injured people.

Authorities blamed the blast on Kurdish rebels. Police said two suspects escaped the scene. Authorities denied news reports that two people had been captured.

The attack – which shattered the windows of surrounding buildings and could be heard two miles away – appeared to be in retaliation for three airstrikes by Turkish warplanes against Kurdish rebel shelters in northern Iraq last month.

The pro-Kurdish Firat news agency reported the Kurdistan Workers Party’s leaders in Iraq had declared big cities in Turkey to be targets.

There have been two explosions in Turkey’s commercial centre, Istanbul, in the past two weeks, killing one person and injuring nine. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks but Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler has blamed Kurdish rebels.

The last bomb attack blamed on Kurdish rebels in Diyarbakir was in September 2006 which left 10 people dead.

The rebel group, known as the PKK, has battled for autonomy in southeastern Turkey for more than two decades, a campaign that has left tens of thousands of dead. The group uses strongholds in northern Iraq for cross-border strikes.

In October, parliament authorised Turkey’s military to strike back at rebels across the border.

Turkish warplanes took off from an air base in Diyarbakir minutes after today’s attack, Firat reported on its website. It was not clear if the jets were on a bombing mission.