Istanbul bomb kills four as Kurdish violence flares

A roadside bomb blew up a bus carrying military families in Istanbul Tuesday, killing three soldiers and a girl, as Kurdish rebels stepped up their separatist attacks.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed the blast on the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which had threatened attacks in Turkish cities after targeting the military in the southeast.

"The terrorist organization knows very well that it will get nowhere with such attacks. ... This is a dead end," Erdogan said in Parliament in Ankara.

There was no formal claim of responsibility after the Istanbul bomb, and no one was immediately detained, officials said.

The bus, carrying soldiers and their families, was passing through the Halkali district, a suburb on Istanbul's European side, which is home to military lodgings, when the bomb went off.

"This is a terrorist attack," Istanbul Governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu told reporters. "According to initial information, it was a remote-controlled bomb planted at the roadside."

Three soldiers, on their way to work at Istanbul's paramilitary police, and a 17-year-old girl, the daughter of an officer, were killed.

Twelve other people were injured, and two were in serious condition, Mutlu said.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, threatened attacks in Turkish cities as it killed 12 soldiers over the weekend.

Most of the troops were killed when dozens of rebels assaulted a border unit at the Iraqi frontier, prompting a Turkish air raid on PKK hideouts in northern Iraq, where the rebels have long taken refuge.

AFP