Car Bomb in Turkey Injures Police Officers

By Staff, Agencies

Several Turkish police officers have been wounded after a car bomb went off as their minibus passed on a highway in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir, Turkish officials said.

“There was an explosion in a parked vehicle at 5:10 am as a police vehicle was going to work in Diyarbakir,” Turkish interior minister Suleyman Soylu said.

Two people believed to be the perpetrators of the blast have been detained, he added.

The Diyarbakir governor’s office said the bomb had not critically hurt anyone, but nine people who had been in the armored minibus were taken to hospital for checkups.

It added that the blast occurred near a livestock market some 10 kilometers south of the center of Diyarbakir, the largest city in southeastern Turkey.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Kurdish and leftist fighters and Daesh [Arabic for ‘ISIS/ISIL’] terrorists have all carried out bomb attacks in Turkey in the past.

A bomb killed six people and wounded dozens in Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul, last month. Dozens of people, including a Syrian woman, were detained as suspects.

Turkey blamed fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party [PKK] for that blast, but no group claimed responsibility.