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PKK News
PKK: Militants may have staged Turkey bombing on own initiative
ANKARA, Turkey: Kurdish militants acting on their own initiative may have staged a deadly bomb attack in a city in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast, the separatist Kurdish rebel group was quoted Monday as saying.
The bombing in Diyarbakir on Jan. 3 killed five people, including four high school students, and wounded 68, including more than 30 soldiers. The bomb went off as a bus carrying military personnel was passing.
No one claimed responsibility, but Turkish officials quickly blamed separatist Kurdish rebels.
The Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, said some of its militants, acting on their own, may have been behind the attack and said the group was investigating, the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency said on its Web site.
"There is the possibility that the action may have been carried out by a unit loyal to our forces, on their own initiative," Firat quoted the PKK as saying. "Clear information has not yet reached our headquarters. We will be sharing the findings when our investigation into the issue is concluded."
The PKK has waged a guerrilla war for Kurdish self-rule since 1984 and in the past has set off bombs in large cities.
Four people detained for suspected links to the attack were released Sunday after questioning.
The blast followed a spate of cross-border Turkish military operations into neighboring Iraq, where the rebels are based.
The PKK is deemed a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
Meanwhile, eight Turkish soldiers detained by Turkey after they were held hostage by Kurdish rebels face prison sentences ranging from three years to life imprisonment, reports said.
The soldiers were captured during a clash with the PKK near the Turkish-Iraqi border in October and were held for two weeks before they were released in a mountainous area in northern Iraq. The fighting left 12 other soldiers dead.
The troops are charged with disobeying orders, local media reported, which if convicted carries a maximum jail term of five years.
One of the soldiers is charged with "helping to harm the state's unity and the country's integrity," and faces life in prison if convicted, the English-language Turkish Daily News reported.
A military prosecutor reportedly completed his indictment last week. The first hearing is scheduled for Feb.1.
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