TURKEY: Attack on police bus in Turkey kills four, wounds 22

Record ID: 352243

  • Title: TURKEY: Attack on police bus in Turkey kills four, wounds 22
  • Date: 9th October 2008
  • Summary: (BN15) DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY (OCTOBER 08, 2008) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF POLICE SURROUNDING THE AREA POLICE HELICOPTER IN AIR VARIOUS OF ATTACKED BUS POLICE INVESTIGATING SCENE
  • Embargoed: 24th October 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA4CNJWZXGDJ5UYKD1MGHHQOV86
  • Story Text: Three police students and one civilian were killed and 22 other people were wounded in an attack on a police bus in south-east Turkey on Wednesday (October 8), police said.
    Unknown assailants armed with guns and explosives attacked a white police bus on a busy street on the outskirts of the city of Diyarbakir. At least 11 of the wounded were police students and the others were civilians, police said.
    There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the daylight attack.
    Kurdish separatist guerrillas frequently target Turkey's armed forces and police in the mainly Kurdish south-east.
    The attack came shortly before parliament in Ankara was scheduled to approve a government request to extend a mandate to launch military operations against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels based in northern Iraq.
    Television images showed bullet holes in the windows of the bus that was carrying the students. Attacks are rare in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the Kurdish southeast, where there is a strong presence of Turkish troops.
    Anatolian state news agency said an unexploded grenade was found near the site.
    Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and the military have pledged to step up a campaign to crush the separatist PKK, including those based across the border in Iraq.
    Pressure has increased on the authorities after a cross-border attack killed 17 soldiers on Friday (October 3), the deadliest against the Turkish military in a year. The outcome of the vote had been widely expected.
    Turkey blames the PKK, considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union (EU), for the deaths of more than 40,000 people since it launched its armed campaign for an ethnic Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register