Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !

Europe

PKK claims Istanbul bombing

2006-02-10

A bomb tore through an Internet cafe frequented by police Thursday in Istanbul, wounding at least 17 people, including a child. A hard-line Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, a Kurdish news agency reported. The explosion took place Thursday afternoon in the cafe on a side street near the riot police headquarters in the Bayrampasa neighborhood. Coskun Kilic, who helped evacuate some of the victims, said the blast sent chairs into the street and left the cafe filled with smoke. "I carried seven or more injured," Kilic told The Associated Press at the scene. "Their hair was burnt and two of them, a child and an officer were unconscious and badly injured." Police cordoned off the area and ambulances rushed the injured to hospitals. Istanbul prosecutor Aykut Engin, who inspected the scene of the blast, said seven police officers and 10 civilians were hurt, including a badly injured child. The Anatolia news agency reported a 13-year-old boy had his legs blown off by the blast. The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons Organization, a hard-line group believed linked to the main Kurdish guerrilla group, the Kurdistan Workers Party, claimed responsibility for the bombing, the Netherlands-based Firat News Agency said on its Web site. The group has demanded that jailed Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan be moved out of solitary confinement. Ocalan has been in prison on an island near Istanbul since his capture on Feb. 15, 1999. His guerrilla group and supporters have long expressed concern about Ocalan's health. But a delegation from the Council of Europe's committee for the prevention of torture, which visited Ocalan on the island in 1999, said the rebel leader's cell was well lit and suitably equipped. Turkey also maintains that doctors closely monitor Ocalan's health. The shadowy group has claimed responsibility for a number of bomb attacks in Turkey, including a blast in the Aegean resort town of Cesme last summer that wounded 21 people.

Link

Europe

Turk terrs boom garbage can, wound 20

2005-07-11

A militant Kurdish group claimed responsibility for a bomb Sunday in a resort town on Turkey's Aegean coast that wounded 20 people, including two foreign tourists, a pro-Kurdish news agency reported. The Germany-based Mezopotamya News Agency, which often reports rebel statements, said the shadowy Kurdistan Freedom Falcons Organization, or TAK, claimed responsibility for the blast in the town of Cesme. Yeah, yeah. They're always "Falcons" and "Lions" and "Tigers" and "Bears" and other noble carnivores. By now they're always tiresome, too. An anonymous caller bravely said TAK "had warned authorities before the attack and that they will continue to target touristic areas," the news agency said on its Web site. "That's cuz we're important. We got explosives. Inconsequential shitbags that couldn't get paper hat jobs wouldn't have explosives, would they?" The explosives were stashed into a soda bottle that was placed in a garbage can in downtown Cesme, a popular tourist destination about 45 miles southwest of the port city of Izmir, police said. Rather appropriate, that... Anatolia identified the foreign victims as John Willoghby, 63, of Britain, and Aleksander Daniluk, 44, of Russia. Willoghby suffered a light flesh wound, while Daniluk was injured in his left arm, Anatolia reported. It said three Turks with serious injuries were taken to a hospital in Izmir. The militant Kurdish group had warned foreign tourists to stay away from Turkey after claiming responsibility for a similar bomb attack that killed a police officer and injured four others in the Aegean resort town of Kusadasi on April 30. The guerrilla group, considered as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, says revenues from Turkey's lucrative tourism industry help fund its military drive against the guerrillas. An injured witness, Ramazan Mert, told Anatolia he saw two men heroically drop a bag in the garbage can before the explosion, which happened at around 2:30 p.m. near the mayor's office on Cesme's main square. They then ran off, telling each other 'Huh huh! This is sooooo kewl!'"

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-2 More