Car bomb hits bus carrying soldiers in Turkey

At least 13 soldiers were killed and 56
were wounded when a car bomb hit a
bus carrying off-duty military personnel
in the central Turkish city of Kayseri.
The attack comes one week after a twin
bombing targeted police personnel in
Istanbul.
"The bus was full of soldiers going on
their weekend leave," said Al Jazeera's
Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul.
"The soldiers in the bus are from the
commando brigade."
Turkish authorities have so far detained
seven people and are searching for
another five in relation to the attack,
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said.
Saturday's blast is likely to further anger
the Turkish public, who are frustrated by
a string of deadly bombings this year,
several of which have been claimed by
Kurdish fighters, including last week's
Istanbul bombings which killed 44 and
wounded more than 150.
There was no immediate claim of
responsibility, but Deputy Prime
Minister Veysi Kaynak likened the attack
to last Saturday's deadly violence outside
the stadium of Istanbul soccer team
Besiktas, later claimed by an offshoot of
the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK).
"The car bomb attack resembles the
Besiktas attack in terms of its style," he
told a group of reporters, adding the
incident would not put Turkey off of its
goal of fighting the group.
In a statement, President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan said a "separatist terrorist
organisation" was responsible for the
attack, adding that such attacks were not
independent of developments in Iraq
and Syria.
Erdogan frequently uses the term
"separatist terrorist organisation" to
refer to the PKK, which is considered a
"terrorist group" by the United States,
Turkey and the European Union.