ISTANBUL, 11 July 2005 — A bomb attack in a popular Turkish resort yesterday wounded 20 people, including two foreign tourists, officials said. “It’s been determined that (the explosion) was a bomb,” a police officer in the town of Cesme told Reuters by telephone.
The blast was caused by either a fragmentation bomb or a pipe-bomb and occurred in a waste bin outside of a bank in central Cesme, a major tourist center on the Aegean Sea.
A British citizen and Russian national were among the victims, a police official told Reuters. She said both men were being treated in hospital for their injuries which were not life-threatening. One victim was seriously wounded, another official said. No one claimed responsibility for the attack. Kurdish rebels, militants and far-left radicals have been behind similar bombings in Turkey in the past.
Turkish officials have warned in recent months that the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) could step up attacks in western Turkey, especially in urban centers. The PKK has limited most of its attacks to the mainly Kurdish southeast, but claimed responsibility in April for a bombing in Kusadasi, another Aegean Sea resort center. One police officer died in that attack.
