Three die following Turkey clashes
A six-year-old boy and two young men wounded during rioting in Kurdish-dominated southeast Turkey have died in hospital, raising the death toll to six after three days of unrest.
The violent protests in the city of Diyarbakir were sparked by recent killings of separatist Kurdish rebels by Turkish forces.
About 270 people have been injured in the protests, the worst street violence seen in the area in more than a decade.
Turkish television said many shops and offices had reopened on Friday, but witnesses reported renewed clashes between protesters and police in at least one district of the city.
The latest fatality was six-year-old Enes Ata who was injured on Thursday.
Witnesses said the boy was wounded by a plastic bullet, the daily Hurriyet newspaper reported.
Among the other people reported killed during the unrest was a 9-year-old boy who was struck by a car as he fled the rioting, said Diyarbakir’s governor, Efkan Ala.
A youth was also crushed to death by an armoured personnel carrier, and one person was killed by gunfire, Ala told the Milliyet newspaper.
High unemployment
The clashes first erupted on Tuesday after funeral ceremonies for 14 members of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) killed by troops last weekend.
Many shops, banks and other buildings have been badly damaged. Cars and trucks have been torched.
CNN Turk television said on its Web site that small protests had also erupted in a district of Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city.
Political analysts say the protests reflect local anger over high unemployment, poverty and Ankara’s refusal to grant more autonomy to the mainly Kurdish region.