Seven wounded by car bomb in Istanbul

World Today

Turkey ExplosionA Turkey national flag hung on a balcony on Istiklal Street in Istanbul. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

A car bomb targeting a vehicle carrying military personnel in Istanbul lightly wounded seven people Thursday, an official said.

The explosion occurred inside a car close to the entrance of a military garrison in Istanbul’s Sancaktepe neighborhood at the start of the evening rush hour, the area’s mayor, Ismail Erdem, said. Windows of nearby buildings were blown out from the force of the blast.

The injured were six military personnel and a civilian woman, Erdem said. They were hit by broken glass, but none of them were in a serious condition.

The explosion comes just two days after Kurdish rebels detonated a car bomb close to a police vehicle in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, killing three people and wounding dozens of others.

The rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, have been targeting police and military targets since July, when a fragile peace process collapsed.

The group is fighting for autonomy for Turkey’s Kurds in the southeast of the country. It has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state in a conflict that has claimed 40,000 lives. The group is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey and its allies.

PKK-linked rebels have staged multiple bomb attacks against Turkish police and troops, which in turn have carried out tank-backed security operations in flashpoint areas.

Story by the Associated Press