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Turkish minister blames radical Kurds for bomb

A radical faction of the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), opposed to the group considering a ceasefire, is believed to be behind a deadly bombing in southeast Turkey, a senior Turkish minister was quoted as saying yesterday.

"We believe that hardliners within the PKK are responsible for the attack" on Tuesday evening at a crowded park in Diyarbakir, the minister, who was not identified, told the popular Vatan newspaper.

The blast that killed 10 people, most of them children, and left 14 others injured came a day after Turkey's main Kurdish party, the Democratic Society Party (DTP), appealed to the PKK to call a ceasefire.

It was the deadliest bombing in Turkey since al-Qaeda suicide truck bombers blew themselves up in Istanbul in 2003, killing 58.

Diyarbakir is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey.

The government, the minister said, believes that the DTP made the appeal with the prior consent of PKK leaders, who have recently spoken about the possibility of a truce.

"But there are divisions within the group. There are some hardliners," the minister told Vatan. "Those hardliners carried out this bloody act to mix up things and scupper the [ceasefire] plan of the group leaders."

The blast was the deadliest in a string of bombings across Turkey this year.

Officials have said that the bomb -- a homemade remote-control device planted in a flask -- went off while it was being carried to another location, suggesting that the park was not the intended target.

A shadowy nationalist Turkish group, the Turkish Revenge Brigade, claimed responsibility for the blast, vowing on its Web site to avenge the killings of Turks by the PKK, which has stepped up violence this year.

The authorities have played down the claim as an attempt for publicity, and even though no official statement has been made about the perpetrators, police sources have said that suspicion fell on the PKK. However, police in Diyarbakir were granted extraordinary powers on Thursday to search for the bombers, local security officials said.

The powers granted by a local court included expanded authority to search houses, set up roadblocks and stop cars without prior authorization, and were to last for a period of three days, the officials said.
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