Turkey foils potential bomb attack in Diyarbakir

[Anthea]

Rudaw

Turkey foils potential bomb attack in Diyarbakir

Turkish security forces discovered a car laden with explosives on Friday and accordingly disabled it, foiling a potential terrorist attack in the troubled city of Diyabakir less than a week after a suicide bombing killed 37 people in Ankara.

Security forces informed Turkey’s Anadolu news agency that the car contained 150kg of explosives and was found parked in front of Hurriyet Primary School, a mere 50 meters from the government’s regional office in Diyarbakir. Bomb disposal experts successfully defused it without incident.

Ankara suffered its second bombing in the space of less than a month last Sunday and is fearful of more attacks. Germany has closed its embassy in the Turkish capital and the US embassy has issued warnings to its citizens in Turkey to exercise diligence and caution in light of the increased number of bomb attacks in the country and in anticipation of potential trouble during the Nowruz holidays.

Turkey has been engaged against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) group since last July, a war that is once again seriously destabilizing its southeast.

The PKK denies it was responsible for the Ankara attacks but a splinter Kurdish militia, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) claimed responsibility for both attacks.

Friday also marks the commemoration of the 101st anniversary of the World War I Battle of Gallipoli. Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan warned Europe that, “there is no reason why the bomb that exploded in Ankara cannot explode in Brussels, in any other European city.”

“The snakes you are sleeping with can bite you any time,” he added.

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