Turkish governor’s convoy bombed
At least five people have been killed and 24 others injured in a bomb attack on a convoy carrying the governor of eastern Turkey’s Van province.
State-run Anatolian news agency said a vehicle containing a bomb exploded on the route of Governor Hikmet Tan’s convoy on Friday morning.
“I was going to work when there was a large explosion around 9:15 a.m. (0615 GMT). All windows were shattered around the car … Nothing happened to me, the bodyguard or driver,” Tan told CNN Turk.
A second bomb was defused shortly afterwards, police spokesman Ramazan Er said in Ankara.
Kurdish rebels of the former Kurdistan People’s Party (PKK), renamed Kongra-Gel, appeared to be behind the attack, according to the police spokesman.
“Our impression is that the attack was carried out by the PKK”, Er told a press conference.
The PKK led a 15-year armed campaign for self-rule in Turkey’s southeast until 1999 when it announced a unilateral truce following the capture of its leader Abdulah Ocalan.
But the rebels called off the truce on June 1, and there has been a sharp rise in the number of clashes with Turkish troops since then.
The governor’s bodyguards also escaped unhurt. Those killed and injured appeared all to be pedestrians, Er added.
Some of those wounded were badly hurt and the death toll might increase, the spokesman added.