5 Killed in Attack on Turkish Military

Source: NYtimes

Bulent Kilic/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Turkish police inspected the wreckage of a military bus after a roadside bomb killed four people and injured 15 on Tuesday in Istanbul.

By SEBNEM ARSU

Published: June 22, 2010

ISTANBUL — In the latest of a series of attacks on the Turkish military, a remote-controlled bomb killed five people and injured 15 on a busy highway in Istanbul’s Halkali district early on Tuesday, the governor’s office announced.
While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, Turkish news reports said the attack may have been carried out by the Kurdistan Workers Party, an armed separatist group seeking autonomy in southeastern Turkey, which the authorities here, along with the United States and the European Union, consider a terrorist organization.
“As Istanbul people, we will hold firm against terror that aims to create an air of anxiety and hopelessness,” Huseyin Avni Mutlu, the Istanbul governor, said. “We will do everything to our capacity to bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice.”
According to witnesses and police investigators, the explosion took place in the morning rush hour as a military shuttle bus traveled between a residential compound and offices that include the military police headquarters.
The dead included the 17-year-old daughter of an officer, a statement from the governor’s office said, adding that the bomb, planted in advance, had been detonated by a cell phone signal.
Television news images showed the bus with shattered windows and severe damage to the rear.
The attack was the latest in a spate of recent assaults ascribed to Kurdish separatists, including an attack on a military outpost in the southeast two days ago that killed 11 soldiers, provoking a public outcry. Earlier this month, a bomb attack injured 15 people on a military shuttle bus.
It also followed a warning by the separatist group that it would launch attacks in cities across Turkey.
Nihat Ali Ozcan, a Turkish terrorism expert, said the increase in attacks was a reaction to the government’s failure to meet Kurdish political expectations, even though the authorities say they are expanding Kurdish rights and broadening democracy as Ankara seeks closer ties with the European Union.