TURKEY: Would-be suicide bomber held in southern Turkey, local authorities say

Record ID: 356506

  • Title: TURKEY: Would-be suicide bomber held in southern Turkey, local authorities say
  • Date: 23rd May 2007
  • Summary: PICTURES OF SUSPECT GUVEN AKKUS
  • Embargoed: 7th June 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVAETO2TSOWZ05M2A2HQRIMF5RUE
  • Story Text: Authorities in the southern Turkish city of Adana say a would-be suicide bomber has been arrested. The governor of Ankara says a suicide bomber was behind a blast that killed six people in the capital on Tuesday. A would-be suicide bomber was detained in the southern Turkish city Adana while trying to escape in a taxi, the city's governor said on Wednesday (May 23).
    Governor Ilhan Atis told the Anatolian news agency that the woman was carrying 11.3 kg (25 lb) of explosive, two hand bombs and a dozen detonators.
    In the Turkish capital Ankara, the city's governor Kemal Onal, said that a suicide bomber was responsible for an attack on Tuesday (May 22) that killed six people.
    "We have discovered some body parts which don't belong to those known to have died in the explosion," he told a news conference.
    "After we have tested the the fingerprints and carried out DNA tests on two fingers that we found at the explosion site, we realised that the parts belonged to someone detained previously for resisting police in the May Day protests and being a member of an outlawed organisation. His name is Guven Akkus, who was born in 1977 in Zara town in the city of Sivas."
    Onal spoke after an emergency anti-terrorism meeting called following the attack, the worst in the capital in at least a decade.
    "The examinations showed the body parts belong to Guven Akkus, a man born in Sivas in 1979. It is understood the incident was caused by the explosion of a plastic bomb on this person's body and the incident's style matches the methods of the separatist organisation," he said.
    The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has been fighting for an ethnic homeland since 1984 and Ankara blames it for more than 30,000 deaths. It has carried out suicide bombings in the past.
    The governor said 91 people were wounded in the attack, which occurred at a time of heightened political tension in the European Union-aspirant country. Authorities had earlier put the injured toll at 102.
    Turkish media reported earlier that eight people had been detained in connection with the blast. The governor gave no details and police declined to comment.
    WR/AD
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