Suicide bomber dies in mosque blast; Kurds detained over Istanbul bombing
ANKARA/ISTANBUL (Combined reports) – A female suicide bomber died yesterday in front of a mosque in the Black Sea city of Ordu, injuring one other person in the explosion, police said. In a separate incident, a bomb exploded in southeastern Turkey as a vehicle passed by, injuring two people, officials said. The woman blew herself up in front of the Yenimahalle mosque, a police official said. A person standing close to her was injured. Police were investigating to see if she may have been a Kurdish rebel, the official said, on condition of anonymity. The main Kurdish guerrilla group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has long recruited women as guerrillas. The second blast occurred in Diyarbakir, the main city in the predominantly Kurdish southeast, close to a military headquarters. Two people riding inside a car, including an 11-year-old child, were injured, an official said. Meanwhile in Istanbul, police rounded up 11 suspected Kurdish militants and seized nearly 8 kilograms (17.5 pounds) of explosives believed to have been destined for bomb attacks in Istanbul, the Anatolia news agency reported. Acting on a tip-off, police raided a house in the distant Istanbul suburb of Kucukcekmece, detaining two suspected members of the outlawed PKK and seizing 3.8 kilos (8.4 lbs) of plastic explosives, officials told Anatolia. Nine other suspects were detained in separate raids in the city, which led to the seizure of a further 4 kilos (8.8 lbs) of explosives. The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), believed to be a cover for the PKK’s urban attacks, on Wednesday claimed responsibility for an explosion that wounded three at an office of the ruling Justice and Development Party in Istanbul. The group also carried out a bomb blast that killed one and wounded 13 at a bus station in the city on March 31. (AP, AFP)
