Nine said killed by roadside bomb in Turkey

11/08/2008

ANKARA, Turkey -- News reports say at least nine Turkish soldiers were killed and two injured in a roadside bomb explosion in the Erzinican province in eastern Turkey, early Monday (August 11th). The bomb hit a vehicle transporting the soldiers near a bridge in the Kemah district. Operations to detain members of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), allegedly responsible for the attack, continue.

On Friday, the PKK claimed responsibility for a blast that shut down part of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline last week. PKK commander Behroz Erdal warned the group will attack other economic targets if Turkish security forces continue military operations against Kurdish fighters in Turkey and across the border in northern Iraq. Turkish authorities however, downplayed the possibility of sabotage, saying a fault in the pipeline had been detected before the blast. (Dogan, BBC, Zaman, Reuters, Hurriyet, Anadolu news agency - 11/08/08; Hurriyet, Turkish Press, Xinhua - 10/08/08; Anadolu news agency, AFP, AP, Press TV, Firat news agency, Herald Tribune - 09/08/08)