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Kurdish guerrillas bomb, derail trains

Kurdish guerrillas, intensifying their attacks on Turkish targets, derailed two trains by remote-controlled bombs on Saturday, killing five railway security guards and injuring 20 people, the interior minister said.

The rebels first targeted a passenger train carrying more than 50 people, detonating a bomb planted on tracks and derailing seven rail cars in the province of Bingol, some 1,000km southeast of the Turkish capital Ankara.

Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu said five security guards were killed in the attack. He put the number of injured at 20. Some of the passengers and crew members were injured when they were trapped under derailed cars.

"Our security forces are continuing operations to capture the culprits of this treacherous attack," Aksu said.

Railway officials had said earlier that six guards had been killed when the bomb exploded under their car, but hours later they said one of the injured guards had mistakenly been listed as dead.

The militants derailed a second train that had been rushing to the scene to help _ again detonating a remote- controlled bomb. A third bomb, not far from the site of first attack, was found and detonated by Turkish troops who launched an operation to hunt down the rebels in the rugged area.

Military helicopters ferried the injured to local hospitals, the Anatolia news agency said. All 45 passenger and 11 crew members were evacuated by Turkish troops.

Turkey's overwhelmingly Kurdish southeast has experienced a surge in violence since autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels ended a five-year unilateral cease-fire last summer, saying Turkey had not responded in kind. The clashes have left 37,000 people dead since 1984.

Turkish intelligence officials say Kurdish insurgents have been increasingly using remote-controlled bombs in their stepped-up attacks since the start of war in Iraq, where insurgents often use roadside bombs to attack US-led forces.

On Saturday morning, suspected rebels injured three Turkish police officers in the town of Kulp, near the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, also by detonating a bomb from distance. The bomb went off as the police officers approached to check out a suspicious package left in the street.

Syria, which was long accused by Turkey for harboring Turkish Kurdish rebels, on Saturday denounced the train attack, calling it "a terrorist and heinous act." A Foreign Ministry official was quoted as saying such "terrorist actions pose a threat to the security and stability of Turkey and the region."

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Washington earlier this month that his country was getting help from Syria, which is sharing intelligence and handing over rebels. The US has been at odds with Syria, accusing Damascus of failing to prevent fighters from crossing its border to join the insurgency in Iraq suppressing democracy in Lebanon.

Syria and Turkey have sizable Kurdish populations and fear that Kurdish independence could incite their own Kurds to push for autonomy. Some 37,000 people have died as a result of fighting between rebels and Turkey's military since 1984.
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