Turkish car bomb blast kills three outside secondary school

Twenty-four injured in suspected terrorist attack in downtown area of Ankara A car bomb which exploded outside a secondary school in Ankara has killed at least three people and injured 24. The blast on Tuesday, near government buildings, including the prime minister’s office in the Turkish capital, was a terrorist attack, the prosecutor’s office said. “The explosion occurred in a place where car and people traffic is intense. It looks like the intention was to inflict as much harm to people as possible,” said the interior minister, Idris Naim Sahin. He said the bodies of three people were found in a building near the car in central Ankara and five of the injured were in a critical condition. The deputy prime minister, Bulent Arinc, blamed the blast on a bomb planted on a vehicle. Bulent Tanik, a local mayor, said a witness told him someone threw a burning gas canister on to the vehicles from a nearby building. “If true, that canister might have triggered the blast of a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tank on a vehicle,” he said. Witnesses said vehicles were thrown through the air by the force of the blast and shops were destroyed beyond recognition. The parked car that triggered the blast was purchased a week ago but had not been registered. There was no claim of responsibility but Kurdish rebels, Islamists and leftist militants have all carried out bombings on Turkish soil. Turkey analyst at Chatham House, Fadi Hakura, said if it was confirmed to be a bomb, the method and targets of the attack suggested it was the work of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK). “The PKK is the only group in Turkey with the capacity and wherewithal to carry out such an attack,” said Hakura. He added that Islamists have tended to attack high-profile foreign targets in the Nato-member country, while the PKK had past form of striking against civilians, although he said the Kurdish rebels tended to claim attacks only when they were against foreign targets. Reyhan Altintas, a neighbourhood administrator, said she rushed outside after hearing a loud blast. It was followed by three other blasts, apparently caused by cars catching fire. “I had never heard anything like it in my life,” witness Adnan Yavuz said of the initial blast. “Then came another explosion and parts of a car dropped from the tree.” The wounded were initially treated in the schoolyard before medics arrived at the scene and took them to hospitals, NTV television said. Authorities evacuated the school as parents rushed to pick up their children. Police detained a woman at the scene who shouted “long live our struggle” as she was escorted away by officers, Dogan news agency video showed. The PKK, which is fighting for autonomy in the south-east, has stepped up attacks on Turkish targets since July. In response, Turkey launched a series of cross-border airstrikes last month, which it said killed up to 100 Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq. Just days later, Kurdish rebels were blamed for a small bomb attack in the Mediterranean resort town of Kemer that wounded 10 people, including four Swedes. While most PKK operations target the military, police and state employees in the largely Kurdish south-east, the group has previous form of striking at the capital. In 2004, four bombs exploded at branches of British bank HSBC bank in Ankara and Istanbul. Three years later, the PKK was blamed – but denied responsibility for – a suicide bombing in Ankara that killed six people . Turkey Middle East Europe Global terrorism Haroon Siddique guardian.co.uk

Posted by on September 20, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.