Turkey detains 26 people after car bomb

People inspect the damage from an overnight bomb attack in Viransehir, southeastern Turkey. Hasan Kirmizitas/DHA-Depo Photos via AP

People inspect the damage from an overnight bomb attack in Viransehir, southeastern Turkey. Hasan Kirmizitas/DHA-Depo Photos via AP

Published Feb 18, 2017

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Istanbul - Turkish police detained 26

people over a car bomb attack in the south-eastern town of

Viransehir, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Saturday.

A vehicle loaded with explosives was remotely detonated late

on Friday in the garden of a housing complex for judges and

prosecutors, killing an 11-year-old boy and a security guard.

Seventeen people were injured.

"The vehicle had been detonated just as a security guard who

saw it being parked was about to intervene with a gun, killing

him," Soylu told reporters in Viransehir, adding that the blast

caused damage to 14 buildings nearby.

Eleven people were still being treated in hospital, Soylu

said, including two in intensive care.

"As of last night a total of 26 people had been detained and

our security forces are conducting the necessary work," he

added. A previous statement from the Sanliurfa provincial

governor's office said the owner of the vehicle used in the

attack was among those being held.

Images from the scene showed dozens of cars parked inside

the housing complex were severely damaged while the buildings'

windows and balconies were almost entirely shattered. Turkish

flags were hung on the side of the buildings.

There has been no claim of responsibility. Sanliurfa

governor Gungor Azim Tuna was quoted as saying by the state-run

Anadolu agency that the attack was carried out by Kurdistan

Workers Party (PKK) militants.

The PKK, designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the

European Union and the United States, launched an armed

separatist insurgency in 1984 and more than 40,000 people have

been killed in the conflict.

A ceasefire between the PKK and the state broke down in

July, 2015.

REUTERS

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