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| The Grand Turk |
| Ankara car bomb kills three |
| 2011-09-20 |
| A car bomb which exploded outside a secondary school in Ankara has killed at least three people and injured 24. The blast on Tuesday, near government buildings, including the prime minister's office in the Turkish capital, was a terrorist attack, the prosecutor's office said. "The explosion occurred in a place where car and people traffic is intense. It looks like the intention was to inflict as much harm to people as possible," said the interior minister, Idris Naim Sahin. He said the bodies of three people were found in a building near the car in central Ankara and five of the injured were in a critical condition. The deputy prime minister, Bulent Arinc, blamed the blast on a bomb planted on a vehicle. Bulent Tanik, a local mayor, said a witness told him someone threw a burning gas canister on to the vehicles from a nearby building. "If true, that canister might have triggered the blast of a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tank on a vehicle," he said. Witnesses said vehicles were thrown through the air by the force of the blast and shops were destroyed beyond recognition. The parked car that triggered the blast was purchased a week ago but had not been registered. There was no claim of responsibility but Kurdish rebels, Islamists and leftist militants have all carried out bombings on Turkish soil. Turkey analyst at Chatham House, Fadi Hakura, said if it was confirmed to be a bomb, the method and targets of the attack suggested it was the work of the Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK). "The PKK is the only group in Turkey with the capacity and wherewithal to carry out such an attack," said Hakura. He added that Islamists have tended to attack high-profile foreign targets in the Nato-member country, while the PKK had past form of striking against civilians, although he said the Kurdish rebels tended to claim attacks only when they were against foreign targets. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |