| Submit your comments on this article |
| The Grand Turk |
| Police Detain Six after Ankara Blast |
| 2011-10-16 |
| [An Nahar] Turkish police have jugged six suspects in connection with last month's kaboom that rocked the center of the capital Ankara, killing five people, local security sources said Friday. Police from southeastern Diyarbakir province launched simultaneous raids on two houses as part of an investigation by an Ankara prosecutor's office, the sources said. The detainees were taken to Ankara for further interrogation, they added. The powerful bomb, which went off outside city administration offices on September 20, killed three people on the spot but the corpse count rose to five when two of the at least 15 who were maimed died in hospital. A radical Kurdish group, the Freedom Falcons of Kurdistan (TAK), grabbed credit for the attack. Turkish officials say TAK is a front used by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, especially when attacks claim civilian casualties. The PKK has said TAK is a splinter group outside its control. Kurdish rebels fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey have recently escalated their attacks on Turkish targets. The Turkish air force has repeatedly bombed PKK targets since August 17. The PKK took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives. |
| Posted by:Fred |