Fourteen Turkish soldiers killed in suicide bombing

Turkish authorities blame outlawed Kurdish militant group PKK for attack on public bus carrying off-duty commandos in Anatolia province.

A public bus that was carrying Turkish troops burns after a suicide car bombing attack in central Anatolian city of Kayseri on December 17, 2016. IHA via AP

ISTANBUL // A suicide car bomber on Saturday blew up a public bus transporting off-duty soldiers in Turkey’s central province of Kayseri, killing 14 troops and wounding 56 other people.

The blast happened a week after a car-bomb attack claimed by Kurdish militants killed 44 people, mainly riot police, and wounded more than 150 others near a football stadium in Istanbul.

Interior minister Suleyman Soylu said the identity of the Kayseri attacker was known and that seven people had been taken into custody in connection with the attack. Police were searching for five others.

Mr Soylu said a total of 56 people were wounded, half a dozen of them seriously. The death toll rose from 13 to 14 after one more soldier died in hospital, the official Anadolu news agency said.

Though no group made any immediate claim of responsibility, the Turkish authorities said the signs suggested the bombing was the work of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Kurdish militants said they carried out the football stadium attack and deputy prime minister Veysi Kaynak described the Kayseri bombing as “unfortunately similar” to last weekend’s tragedy in Istanbul.

“All indications at present point to the PKK,” said government spokesman Numan Kurtulmus. “We have to take into account all possibilities but the signs at present point to the PKK.”

Hours later, dozens of nationalist protesters stormed the headquarters of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) in Kayseri.

The suicide bomber ambushed a commando brigade going on weekend leave at 8.45am in Kayseri, a usually calm industrial town in central Anatolia. The bomb went off at the entrance gate to Erciyes University. Health minister Recep Akdag said four of the 48 wounded soldiers were in critical condition.

Images taken moments after the explosion showed a public bus, still in flames, with its windows blown open and its interior blackened.

Although no group made any immediate claim of responsibility, Kurdish militants have claimed several attacks against soldiers and police across Turkey this year that have also caused many civilian casualties.

“Turkey is under a combined attack by terrorist organisations, especially the divisive terrorist organisation,” said Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He said the attack was “not independent” of developments in Syria and Iraq.

Turkey has fought the PKK for decades in a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. The collapse of a two-and-a-half year ceasefire in July last year set the stage for a violent new chapter and ushered vast security operations in the predominantly Kurdish south-east of the country.

Turkey is also at odds with western-backed Kurdish factions fighting against ISIL extremists in neighbouring Syria and Iraq. Turkey views these groups as extensions of the PKK. On Saturday, president Erdogan conceded the Kayseri bombing was “not independent” of developments in Syria and Iraq.

“We know that these attacks we have endured are not unrelated to happenings in Syria and Iraq, or even our economical fluctuations,” he said. The protesters who broke into the HDP offices threw papers and furniture into the street and removed the HDP sign from the entrance. One group then ascended to the top of the building, where they started a fire and draped a giant red flag with three crescent moons, the insignia of the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Turkish media said that Saturday’s protesters were supporters of the Grey Wolves, a militant wing of the MHP who were prominent in the 1980s and 1990s.

The government says the HDP is the political wing of the PKK, a claim the HDP denies. Several of the party’s members of parliament, including the co-leaders, are currently under arrest over alleged links to the PKK.

The HDP earlier condemned the attack on the soldiers “in the strongest possible terms”.

But it added: “We have long passed the stage of settling with messages of condemnation. We all must stand together for peace, democracy, justice and freedom against violence, to end this pain.”

Kayseri is seen as one of the strongholds of the nationalist party in Turkey, although the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) has made inroads there in recent years.

Meanwhile, angry right-wing protesters also attacked an outdoor meeting of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) in central Kayseri, the Hurriyet daily said.

A state of emergency was declared following a botched July 15 coup attempt in Turkey and remains in force. The Turkish government has detained tens of thousands of people and fired tens of thousands of others for alleged ties to a cleric-led movement it says was behind the attempted coup, a claim the group denies.

As usual with attacks in Turkey, the prime minister’s office imposed a temporary blackout on coverage and urged media to refrain from publishing anything that may cause “fear in the public, panic and disorder and which may serve the aims of terrorist organisations.”

* Associated Press and Agence France-Presse