Thirteen soldiers were killed and 48 more were injured when a car bomb hit a bus transporting off-duty military personnel in the central Turkish city of Kayseri on Saturday, one week after a twin bombing targeted police in Istanbul. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but deputy prime minister Veysi Kaynak likened the attack to last Saturday‘s dual bombings outside the stadium of Istanbul soccer team Besiktas, later claimed by an offshoot of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The military confirmed 13 personnel were killed and 48 wounded and said civilians may also have been injured in the attack. Regional governor Suleyman Kamci said the blast in Kayseri, a usually calm industrial hub in Central Anatolia, was carried out by a suicide bomber parked next to the bus near the entrance to Erciyes University. Turkey faces multiple security threats including spillover from the fight against Islamic State in northern Syria, where it is a member of a U.S.-led coalition against the militant group. It is also likely to increase tension in Turkey‘s mainly Kurdish southeast, where militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have waged a three-decade insurgency that has seen some of its worst fighting in the last year.
At least 13 people are killed and 56 others are wounded in a car bomb attack on a bus carrying off-duty soldiers in Kayseri Province, central Turkey.