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| Europe |
| Kurdish group claims Istanbul bombing |
| 2004-08-10 |
| But the pro-Kurdish MHA news agency reported receiving a telephone call claiming the bombings in the name of a Kurdish rebel group. "A person who called our agency and presented himself (herself) as an activist from the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons organization claimed responsibility for the acts in Istanbul which claimed two lives," the Germany-based agency reported. The caller said the attacks were carried out in retaliation for "recent operations in Kurdistan and the execution of Kurdish guerrillas," MHA said. Contacted by AFP, the agency said the caller did not specify whether the group was linked to the outlawed former Kurdistan Workers` Party (PKK), which has waged a bloody 15-year campaign for self-rule in southeast Turkey. The PKK, now known as KONGRA-GEL, ended a five-year unilateral ceasefire with Ankara on June 1. The two almost simultaneous explosions occurred at around 2:00 am in hotels in two tourist districts in the heart of Istanbul, Turkey`s biggest city, blowing out windows and starting fires. "For the moment everything is pointing to a terrorist attack," Istanbul police chief Celalettin Cerrah was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency shortly after the blasts. A Turkish and an Iranian national, staying at the Pars Hotel in Laleli, were killed and 11 others, all but one of them foreigners, were injured. The second targeted hotel, the Star Holiday, is located in the Sultanahmet district, near two of Istanbul`s top tourist attractions, the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia Church. Woken by the explosions, half-dressed guests were seen running out from one of the hotels carrying their suitcases. An hour later two more bombs went off at a major liquefied gas storage site in Esenyurt, in Istanbul`s outskirts, causing damage but no casualties. A small fire was quickly put out. "I can comment on the organization (behind the blasts) only after the laboratory examination of the explosives is completed ... No organization has been ruled out," Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu told reporters. He hinted, however, that the blasts might have been caused by Kurdish rebels, adding that the Istanbul police had recently arrested four suspected Kurdish militants. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |