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Turkish police make arrests after bomb kills five, injures 68

Police have detained four people after a bomb attack targeting Turkish soldiers killed five civilians and wounded 68 people, a prosecutor said yesterday.

The four were being interrogated over suspected links to Thursday's attack, said Durdu Kavak, chief prosecutor in the southeastern Turkish province of Diyarbakir.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Turkish leadership immediately blamed separatist Kurdish rebels who have carried out bombings across the country in the past.

A bomb-laden car exploded in the predominantly Kurdish area while a military service bus carrying soldiers was passing by. The blast set dozens of cars on fire and shattered the windows of buildings nearby, including one packed with students preparing for university entrance exams. Four of the dead were students, Kavak said in a written statement.

The US Embassy in Ankara condemned the bombing, calling it "a horrific example of the senseless tragedy that terrorism brings."

The city was the scene of another bomb attack last summer targeting military staff. Seven people were wounded.

After Thursday's bombing, paramilitary police seized more than 64kg of explosives in two separate operations across the country, state-run media said.

In Bursa, one of Turkey's commercial centers, security forces raided a minibus in a gas station and found at least 14kg of C-4 plastic explosives and a mechanism that could be used to detonate a bomb. The man driving the minibus was detained, state-run Anatolia news agency said.

Another minibus with more than 50kg of explosives and hand grenades was found in Van, on the eastern tip of Turkey near the border with Iran, Anatolia said.

The rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) have waged a guerrilla war since 1984 for autonomy in Turkey's southeast. Diyarbakir is the biggest city in the region.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed the PKK for the attacks and vowed to keep up the decades-old fight against the rebels.

"This terrorist organization has never been representative of our people living in the southeast and it will not be," he said. "We will continue our determined fight and will not compromise."

A group of local organizations, such as labor unions and non-governmental organizations, condemned the attack with a joint declaration.

Attorney Sezgin Tanrikulu said via telephone that he condemned the attack on behalf of more than 70 organizations.
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