Bus bombing kills 3 in Istanbul

April 03, 2006|Benjamin Harvey, Associated Press

ISTANBUL -- A group of men stopped a bus and tossed gasoline bombs at it, sending it careening into pedestrians and killing three people yesterday. Meanwhile, pro-Kurdish riots spread.

In the country's Kurdish southeast, a pro-Kurdish demonstrator was killed, and local officials linked police to his death.

Clashes between Kurds and security forces have spread from the southeast to Istanbul, which has a large Kurdish population.

In the attack in Istanbul's Bagcilar district, the driver reversed his flaming vehicle onto a sidewalk after the bombing, and ran down people, police said.

At least two of those killed were elderly women, and police said they suspected Kurdish militants were behind the attack.

Television images showed the bus propped up on the sidewalk and engulfed in flames, which shot out of broken windows.

Private NTV television said men had gathered after the attack and shouted slogans for an outlawed Kurdish separatist group that is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

If the Istanbul bus attack is proven to have been carried out by pro-Kurdish demonstrators, it would bring to 12 the total number of people killed in related violence in the past week.

The rioting was set off by funerals for 14 pro-autonomy Kurdish guerrillas killed by Turkish troops. Thousands of protesters have attacked police, banks, and government offices.

In the southeastern town of Kiziltepe, where much of the violence has occurred, police, who said they had not slept for days, stood nervously on nearly every street corner.

Hospital officials said that a man, 20, had been killed in a demonstration there yesterday and that five people had been injured.