Car bomb injures 16 in Turkey

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

ANKARA (AFP) — Sixteen people -- most of them policemen and soldiers -- were injured in a powerful car bomb blast that targeted Turkish security forces in the western city of Izmir, officials said Thursday .

Police did not say who could be behind the blast, but a cabinet minister hinted that Kurdish rebels waging a 24-year armed campaign against Ankara -- which has claimed some 37,000 lives -- were to blame.

The car, parked on the side of a road in a residential area in the Aegean city, exploded at around 7:45 am (0445 GMT) just as a military car and a police bus were approaching it, the Izmir governor's office said.

"The explosion occurred in a vacant car left at the blast scene. We believe the blast was the result of plastic explosives set off by remote...