MESOP FLASH : Turkey says four PKK ‘bombmakers’ killed in blast in the Kurdish region

NORTH KURDISTAN (TURKEY) DIYARBAKIR-AMED, 13 May 2016 – A Turkish official said four Kurdish rebels were killed while loading explosives onto a truck in Turkish Kurdistan, in the country’s southeast on Thursday, hours after a separate blast targeting the military in Istanbul wounded eight. A powerful blast that shook an area near the main Kurdish city of Diyarbakir on Thursday killed four “bombmakers” and injured at least 10 other people, the interior ministry said.

The blast happened in the area of Sarikamis on the outskirts of the majority Kurdish city “while PKK militants loaded explosives onto a stolen truck”, the ministry said, referring to the Kurdistan Workers Party.“The explosives detonated prematurely,” the ministry said.“The injured were civilians, according to initial findings,” it added.

The impact of the blast was felt in several neighbourhoods of the city, AFP reported. The private Dogan news agency showed video of the wrecked car, which was still on fire. The windows of nearby buildings were blown out by the force of the blast. The explosion came hours after at least eight people including soldiers were injured by a remotely-detonated car bomb aimed at a military vehicle in Istanbul, according to the local governor’s office. www.mesop.de