Cii Radio| Ayesha Ismail| 04 November 2016| 03 Safar 1438
Several people were killed and dozens wounded in a large explosion in central Diyarbakir, a city in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast, the country’s justice minister said.
We have both police and civilian martyrs in Diyarbakir, Bekiz Bozdag said after Friday morning’s blast.
The Diyarbakir governor’s office said that it was a car bomb attack that took place at about 8am local time (5:00 GMT), blaming Kurdish fighters. Many ambulances were sent to the scene in the Baglar district.
Al Jazeera’s Kadir Konuksever, reporting from Diyarbakir, said that an annex building to the police headquarters had been targeted.
“Four other civilian buildings are heavily damaged,” he said, adding that at least 30 people were wounded in the incident and there were fears the number of casualties could increase.
Media reports said the explosion could be heard from several parts of the city and caused damage to nearby buildings.
The explosion happened just hours after police detained 11 MPs from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
The government has stepped up its military campaign in the restive southeast to eradicate outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters, who have launched almost daily attacks since the rupture of a fragile ceasefire last year.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the PKK first took up arms in 1984, with the aim of carving out an independent state for Turkey’s Kurdish minority.
Source – Al Jazeera
