Do More With Reuters
Partner Services

Turkish car bomb attack kills one, injures nine

Tue Aug 19, 2008 8:18pm IST
 
Email | Print | | Single Page
[-] Text [+]

By Daren Butler

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A suspected suicide bomber detonated explosives in his car in Turkey's southern Mersin province on Tuesday, killing himself and injuring nine police officers, the local governor said.

Television pictures showed firemen extinguishing the smoking remains of the vehicle on a motorway, some 10 km from the major port city of Mersin on Turkey's Mediterranean coast.

The assailant detonated the bomb after police officers halted his vehicle near a traffic police checkpoint, Mersin Governor Huseyin Aksoy told state-run Anatolian news agency.

"We are working on the probability that it was a suicide bomber. Investigations on the matter are continuing," he said.

The white car destroyed in the blast had a number plate from the southeastern city of Sanliurfa and was heading towards Mersin city, the governor said.

He said one of the police officers was badly hurt.

Police in the city were not available for comment.

The identity of the assailant was not known. Islamist militants, Kurdish and leftist guerrillas have all carried out bomb attacks in Turkey in the past.  Continued...

Russian Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin poses with his G20 colleagues and central bank leaders during the family photo at the G20 Finance Ministers meeting at a hotel in St. Andrews, Scotland. REUTERS/POOL New
Pledge to support economies

G20 financial leaders pledged to prepare strategies to end emergency support for their economies, but to keep the aid flowing until recovery was assured.  Full Article | Related Story 

Photo
Miss England gives up crown over brawl reports Friday, 6 Nov 2009 

LONDON (Reuters) - Beauty pageant winner Miss England gave up her title on Friday after reports she had been involved in a nightclub brawl with another beauty queen.  Full Article