Istanbul (AFP) December 17, 2016 – Fourteen Turkish soldiers were killed and dozens more wounded Saturday in a suicide car bombing blamed on Kurdish militants targeting off-duty conscripts, the latest in a string of attacks to rock Turkey in recent months.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said a total of 56 people were wounded, half a dozen of them seriously. The death toll has risen from 13 to 14 after one more soldier died in hospital, the official Anadolu news agency said.
Television pictures showed the bus reduced to a smouldering wreck by the blast, which came a week after 44 people were killed in a double bombing in Istanbul after a football match hosted by the top side Besiktas.
That attack, which targeted a police bus, was claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) seen as a radical offshoot of the PKK. No claim has come so far for the Kayseri bombing.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that the attack was carried out by a “suicide bomber”, without giving further details.
Fifteen suspects have already been detained over alleged involvement in the plot, Kayseri state prosecutor Mustafa Arslanturk was quoted as saying by Anadolu.