Suspected Kurdish bombing in the Turkish Aegean.
A bomb, most likely the military explosive C4, planted on a minibus at the Aegean resort of Kusadasi in western Turkey killed five people and injured eleven on Saturday, 16 July. A 21-year-old Englishwoman and an Irish teenager were among those killed.
Catherine Collins, writing in the Sunday, 17 July Chicago Tribune, said that "The state-run Anatolia news agency reported that the bomb exploded in the lap of a girl who was riding a mini-bus. A police official said she was 16 or 17 and was a suspected suicide bomber."
Collins continues, "But authorities later said explosives had been planted on the bus and evidence was pointing away from a suicide attack."
While no one has claimed responsibility for the bombing as yet, Turkish officials suspect that it was set by Kurdish separatists, as the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) warned that it would begin attacking tourist areas rather than confine its attacks to the primarily Kurdish region in the southeast of Turkey. (Gulseren Nalbantolgu of Reuters reported today that "A Turkish daily [Hurriyet] said a Kurdish militant group, TAK [the Kurdistan Liberation Hawks], claimed responsibility for the attack, but this could not be confirmed." Nalbantolgu writes of the TAK, "The shadowy group, a militant faction linked to the PKK, has also said it carried out a bomb attack at a nearby resort on July 10 in which 20 people were injured, including two foreign tourists. It has recently threatened to step up attacks on urban and tourism centres.")
Collins' report concludes:
"Turkey has been plagued by almost daily attacks in recent weeks as fighting increased between PKK separatists and soldiers in the southeast.
"On April 30, a police officer was killed when a bomb hidden inside a cassette player exploded in Kusadasi. On July 10, a bomb hidden inside a soda can injured 21 people in Cesme, another Aegean resort.
"The PKK ended a 5-year cease-fire last fall, and rebels in Turkey have been strengthened by an influx of militants from training camps in northern Iraq, according to Turkish officials. Turkey has repeatedly criticized the U.S. for not dismantling the PKK support system and camps in northern Iraq.
"Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened this week to send Turkish troops into Iraq to attack the Kurdish camps, though government officials said there were no immediate plans for cross-border operations."
Let's hope that Erdogan doesn't make good on his threat, because that would make the "Iraqi environment" that much more "challenging" to our over-stretched, under-supplied, poorly directed troops. Not to mention the various Iraqis -- Arab, Kurd, "marsh Arab," Sunni or Shiite -- who only have to live there.
Catherine Collins, writing in the Sunday, 17 July Chicago Tribune, said that "The state-run Anatolia news agency reported that the bomb exploded in the lap of a girl who was riding a mini-bus. A police official said she was 16 or 17 and was a suspected suicide bomber."
Collins continues, "But authorities later said explosives had been planted on the bus and evidence was pointing away from a suicide attack."
While no one has claimed responsibility for the bombing as yet, Turkish officials suspect that it was set by Kurdish separatists, as the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) warned that it would begin attacking tourist areas rather than confine its attacks to the primarily Kurdish region in the southeast of Turkey. (Gulseren Nalbantolgu of Reuters reported today that "A Turkish daily [Hurriyet] said a Kurdish militant group, TAK [the Kurdistan Liberation Hawks], claimed responsibility for the attack, but this could not be confirmed." Nalbantolgu writes of the TAK, "The shadowy group, a militant faction linked to the PKK, has also said it carried out a bomb attack at a nearby resort on July 10 in which 20 people were injured, including two foreign tourists. It has recently threatened to step up attacks on urban and tourism centres.")
Collins' report concludes:
"Turkey has been plagued by almost daily attacks in recent weeks as fighting increased between PKK separatists and soldiers in the southeast.
"On April 30, a police officer was killed when a bomb hidden inside a cassette player exploded in Kusadasi. On July 10, a bomb hidden inside a soda can injured 21 people in Cesme, another Aegean resort.
"The PKK ended a 5-year cease-fire last fall, and rebels in Turkey have been strengthened by an influx of militants from training camps in northern Iraq, according to Turkish officials. Turkey has repeatedly criticized the U.S. for not dismantling the PKK support system and camps in northern Iraq.
"Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened this week to send Turkish troops into Iraq to attack the Kurdish camps, though government officials said there were no immediate plans for cross-border operations."
Let's hope that Erdogan doesn't make good on his threat, because that would make the "Iraqi environment" that much more "challenging" to our over-stretched, under-supplied, poorly directed troops. Not to mention the various Iraqis -- Arab, Kurd, "marsh Arab," Sunni or Shiite -- who only have to live there.