Kurd rebels claim explosion that killed tourists in Turkey
A Kurdish rebel group said it was responsible for a weekend explosion that killed four people in Turkey, including three foreign tourists.
But local authorities today said the blast was caused by an exploding gas canister.
The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons rebel group claimed responsibility for the explosion in a call to the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency, warning tourists not to go to Turkey, Firat said.
But authorities denied the claims.
“It wasn’t that. It was a gas canister explosion,” said Guzide Ormeci, a spokeswoman for the governor’s office of the Mediterranean resort town of Antalya.
Turkish authorities are reluctant to publicise terrorist attacks at the height of the tourism season in Turkey. When there was a bombing in Istanbul earlier this month, the police chief asked journalists not to “exaggerate” it “because the tourist season is coming up”.
Authorities later said that explosion was caused by a bomb in a rubbish bin, which the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons also claimed.
The explosion on Sunday occurred at a restaurant near a waterfall in Manavgat, a popular tourist district of Antalya. A Russian, Norwegian, a Hungarian and a Turkish waiter were killed.
The Vatan newspaper said security cameras near the waterfall showed two people standing watch as another put a package into a rubbish container some 20 minutes before the explosion.
“A bomb in Manavgat, not a canister!” a front page headline said.
The newspaper’s claims could not be independently verified, and Vatan did not publish pictures from the security cameras.
The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons have claimed responsibility for several fires, sabotage attacks and explosions, but authorities have either denied or failed to verify those claims.
Kurdish rebels have been fighting for autonomy in Turkey since 1984, and some 37,000 people have been killed. Most of the fighting has occurred in the Kurdish-majority south-east, where deadly clashes between rebels and Turkish soldiers are frequent.
The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons appear to be a new and particularly violent group, which has vowed repeatedly to bring the fight to Turkey’s cities and tourist areas.
Separately, no official reason has yet been given for the massive fire last month that destroyed much of the cargo section at the Istanbul airport, which the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons also claimed.
