Turkey suicide bomb attack

  A female suicide bomber killed two people and herself in an attack Saturday in Turkey's eastern Bingol province, the Turkish state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

Bingol Governor Mustafa Hakan Guvencer said 20 people were also hurt when the woman detonated her explosives in the town of Bingol, the agency said.

He told the agency that one of the two victims killed was a woman.

Turkish Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said the injured were being treated in hospital.

Turkey has suffered a number of violent incidents in recent weeks.

An attack 10 days ago in the country's southeastern Hakkari province, blamed on Kurdish separatists, left 24 soldiers dead and 18 injured.

Last month, at least three people were killed by an explosion in the heart of the Turkish capital, Ankara. A Kurdish rebel splinter group later claimed responsibility for the attack.

Turkish rescuers pull 2 more survivors from quake rubble

Nearly three days after a massive earthquake shook eastern Turkey, rescuers pulled two more survivors from collapsed buildings Wednesday.

The quake and its aftermath killed at least 471 people and injured at least 1,650 others, the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Relief Agency said in a statement on its website.

In the latest rescue, emergency crews pulled a 27-year-old teacher from debris 67 hours after the quake hit, the Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported.

The teacher, Gozde Bahar, had difficulty breathing and was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Eyup Erdem, 18, was pulled from a collapsed building where he had been trapped for almost 61 hours and was taken to a field hospital, the semi-official Anatolian news agency reported.

No more information was immediately available on either of the rescues, which occurred in the town of Ercis in the province of Van.

They came a day after crews pulled a baby, her mother and her grandmother alive from the rubble.

The father of 2-week-old Azra Karaduman remained trapped beneath the rubble, officials said. Crews pulled four bodies from the debris after her rescue, but did not say whether they included the infant's father.

Working in temperatures in the 40s (single digits Celsius), teams of rescuers have scoured the ruins for survivors since Sunday's 7.2-magnitude earthquake.

In the town of Guvecli near the Syrian border, the last of the funerals were held Wednesday for the 15 people who died in the town of approximately 2,000 residents. Eighty percent of the 200 buildings were destroyed in the quake and the others were rendered uninhabitable, officials said. Residents were spending the nights crowded into tents, which were in short supply. Residents said aid was arriving sporadically.

In Ankara, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed that the eastern province would be rebuilt. He said 16 planes carrying search-and-rescue teams arrived in the region during the first two days after the earthquake and that 3,755 public personnel, 422 nongovernmental organization workers, 595 search-and-rescue vehicles and 860 health teams had been sent to the affected area.

Turkey said Tuesday that it would accept international aid, citing a need for tents and prefabricated houses for "the reconstruction phase" that will begin after the search-and-rescue efforts, Anadolu said.

Japan's embassy was the first to respond, promising to send about $400,000, Anadolu said. Japan suffered an earthquake and tsunami in March that killed thousands and triggered a nuclear crisis. Britain, France, Jordan, Qatar, Switzerland, Israel, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and the United States have also said they could help with reconstruction, the news agency said.

Israel's Ministry of Defense said a plane carrying seven prefabricated buildings and other aid was to depart Wednesday for the stricken region. At least 2,262 buildings were demolished in Van and surrounding villages and towns, the news agency said.

Relations between the two countries have been tense since last year's Israeli commando raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla laden with humanitarian aid. Nine Turkish activists were killed.

Turkey has suffered other major earthquakes in recent years.

A magnitude-7.6 earthquake in Izmit killed more than 17,000 people in 1999, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. A magnitude-7.2 tremor in Duzce the same year killed 894 people, the agency reported.

24 soldiers killed and 18 injured in attack in Turkey

Twenty-four soldiers were killed and 18 injured during an attack early Wednesday morning in southeastern Turkey, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
Rockets were launched at security forces and military sites in the town of Cukurca, in Hakkari province, an official with the provincial governor's office and Turkish President Abdullah Gul said.
Gul blamed terrorism when he spoke about the attack during a televised address.
"Our determination is certain. Those who think that democratic improvements in Turkey are achieved as a result of terrorism are making a big mistake," Gul said. "It is our decision to continue the struggle against terrorism without giving any concessions."
He warned that "those who inflict this pain on us will endure pain many times over" themselves.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blamed the attack on militants from a Kurdish separatist group, the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, as she gave her condolences to the families of those killed.


"The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms the recent attacks by the PKK in Turkey's Hakkari province," she said in a statement Wednesday.
"We will continue our strong cooperation with Turkey as we work to combat violent extremism in all its forms and safeguard the security of peace-loving people everywhere."
Erdogan said "wide-scale operations, including hot pursuit as defined by international law" were continuing in the region, as the military seeks those responsible.
Speaking to reporters in Ankara, he said the "Turkish state will breathe down the neck of those who secretly or openly support or aid terrorism."


He added: "Turkey always played an active role in the international fight against terrorism and it expects also the international community and all countries to give support and active cooperation in combating terrorism."
Urging the country's people to show unity, he said the process could be lengthy but other countries had defeated terrorism in the end.
U.S. President Barack Obama also strongly condemned what he called "an outrageous terrorist attack against Turkey, one of our closest and strongest allies," in a statement released by the White House.
"The United States will continue our strong cooperation with the Turkish government as it works to defeat the terrorist threat from the PKK and to bring peace, stability and prosperity to all the people of southeast Turkey," Obama said.
"The people of Turkey, like people everywhere, deserve to live in peace, security and dignity."
The attack comes amid escalating tensions between the government and elements of the country's Kurdish minority.

Two weeks ago, lawmakers voted to extend authorization for the Turkish military to carry out cross-border attacks against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. Turkish police also arrested more than 100 people across the country suspected of links to PKK rebels.
The Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party issued a written statement Wednesday, saying: "We are calling on both the government and the PKK to urgently stop the war without wasting one more second. Turkey's most urgent need is peace."


The Kurds represent the largest ethnic minority in Turkey. For decades, they were the target of repressive government policies, implemented by officials who sometimes referred to them as "mountain Turks."
Until just a few years ago, it was illegal to speak Kurdish on radio and television in Turkey. Under Erdogan, the government has tried to improve relations by launching a state Kurdish language TV station in 2009.
Some observers have sounded the alarm about escalating tension between Turkey and its Kurdish minority, warning it may reignite a conflict that has simmered since 1984 and claimed more than 30,000 lives.


Erdogan canceled a trip to Kazakhstan planned for Wednesday in the wake of the attack.
"We changed our plans after hearing about the very sad incident that happened early this morning. ... Our heroes were killed during a cowardly attack," said Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc. He earlier said 25 soldiers were killed.