Police raided houses on Wednesday in a major security crackdown in Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish south-east, after a bomb blast killed 10 people, five of them children.
It was the bloodiest attack in Turkey since suicide bombers killed more than 60 people in Istanbul in November 2003 and the latest in a series of explosions in Turkish cities, including coastal resorts, which have killed at least 15 people.
No one claimed responsibility for the blast late on Tuesday at a bus stop in the city, in the heart of a region that has witnessed 22 years of conflict between Turkish security forces and rebels fighting for a Kurdish state.
The local governor’s office put the death toll at 10, with 15 injured. Police had earlier said the blast killed 11 people.
Among the dead were a mother, her four children and her sister, the state Anatolian news agency reported.
”Our grief is great for the victims of this terror, especially as our children have been the victims,” Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told a gathering of regional leaders.
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer also condemned ”this ugly, inhuman attack”.
The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrilla group denied claims it was responsible for the bombing, blaming instead shadowy elements within the Turkish state.
”This attack was carried out by some forces in the Turkish special war system in order to sabotage this [peace] process,” the PKK said in a statement carried by the Firat News Agency. It was referring to efforts to end the conflict in the region.
There was no immediate word from the Kurdistan Liberation Hawks (TAK), a group believed linked to the PKK which claimed responsibility for attacks in August. TAK has threatened to turn Turkey into ”hell” over its policies towards the Kurds.
‘Bloodbath’
Witnesses said Tuesday’s blast, apparently triggered by a mobile phone, tore a hole half a metre across the pavement and shattered the windows of nearby houses and offices.
”When I looked out I saw a bloodbath. Everyone wanted help. But there was no sound coming from some of the children whom I saw,” said resident Mahmut Coban, sitting at home at the time.
About 500 people gathered on Wednesday by the park where the blast occurred to pay their respects, leaving red carnations.
Police raided houses in Baglar district where the bomb went off and blew up some 10 suspect bags in controlled explosions. They set up checkpoints on roads leading out of town.
Residents were perplexed by the blast, given local support for rebels.
Police said they believed the device was set off by mistake and was intended for police headquarters 1, 5km away.
Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir said the attack was an attempt to sabotage efforts by Kurdish politicians to end separatist conflict in Turkey, which peaked in the 1990s.
”We must be united in our feelings and actions to frustrate this provocation, this game,” Baydemir said.
He was speaking on his return from Ankara where Turkey’s main Kurdish political party, the Democratic Society Party, had urged the PKK to declare a ceasefire. — Reuters