Three separate bomb explosions hit Turkey's southern resort area
of Marmaris and another jolted its commercial capital Istanbul,
injuring at least 22 people, 10 Britons and 11 Turks, the Anatolia
news agency reported Monday.
A blast rocked Istanbul's Bagcilar district late on Sunday and
three separate more hit the coastal resort of Marmaris early on
Monday, the state news agency reported.
Sixteen people, including 10 British tourists, were injured as a
bomb planted under one seat of a mini-bus went off on one of the
major streets in Marmaris, a coastal resort popular with west
European and Russian tourists as well as Turks.
Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office said 10 Britons were
injured in the explosions, according to a report from the British
news agency Press Association.
The other two explosions hit the harbor and a residential block
in Marmaris respectively, and no one was injured, the agency
said.
The blast in Istanbul injured six Turks, Anatolia quoted the
city's police chief Cemalettin Cerrah as saying.
The cause of the explosions was still under investigation. No
individuals or groups have claimed responsibility for the
blasts.
Kurdish separatists, leftists and Islamic militants had carried
out similar bomb attacks in Turkey.
The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which launched an
armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeastern and eastern
Turkey in 1984, and other militant groups have been blamed or
claimed responsibility for similar blasts in the past.
The PKK was also listed as a terrorist organization by the
United States and European Union. Turkey has increased its troop
deployment in the mainly Kurdish southeast to fight against the
PKK.
(Xinhua News Agency August 28, 2006)
