Erdogan blames Kurdish militants after car bomb kills 13 soldiers

Turkey president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) for Saturday’s car bomb in the central Turkish city of Kayseri that killed 13 soldiers and wounded 56 other troops and civilians.

The blast near a university comes a week after deadly twin bombings killed more than 30 police officers in Istanbul. Television pictures showed the smouldering wreckage of the bus, as the wounded were taken to waiting ambulances.

The attack may further infuriate a public smarting from multiple attacks by Islamic and Kurdish militants this year, and a failed coup in July, and could also increase tension in the mainly Kurdish southeast, where militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have waged a three-decade violent insurgency that has seen some of the worst fighting in the last year.

In a statement, Erdoğan said the “separatist terrorist organisation” the PKK was responsible for Saturday’s attack, linking it to developments in Iraq and Syria. He said that Turkey was under “joint attack” by terrorist organisations.

“The style and goals of the attacks clearly show the aim of the separatist terrorist organization is to trip up Turkey, cut its strength and have it focus its energy and forces elsewhere.”

“We know that these attacks we are being subjected to are not independent from the developments in our region, especially in Iraq and Syria,” Erdogan said in a statement.

Erdogan frequently refers to the PKK as "the separatist terrorist organization". The PKK, which wants autonomy for the Kurdish minority, is considered a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union and Turkey.

After Erdoğan’s comments, nationalist protesters on Saturday ransacked the local headquarters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic party (HDP) in Kayseri and several other cities.

Erdogan confirmed that 13 people had been killed and 55 wounded in Saturday's blast. Officials later raised the number of injured to 56, including four in critical condition.

Broadcaster NTV and other local media later put the death toll at 14.

All of those killed and 48 of the wounded were off-duty military personnel, the military said. The bus was mainly carrying privates and corporals, it said.

The bus was stopped at a red light near the campus of Erciyes University in Kayseri when a car approached it and then detonated, NTV said. Militants have previously targeted buses carrying military or security forces.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but government officials likened the attack to last Saturday's dual bombings outside the stadium of Istanbul soccer team Besiktas, later claimed by a PKK offshoot.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Saturday’s attack, but the deputy prime minister, Veysi Kaynak, likened it to the twin bombings outside the stadium of the Istanbul soccer team Beşiktaş last week.

“The car bomb attack resembles the Beşiktaş attack in terms of its style,” Kaynak told reporters, adding that the attack would not deter Turkey from fighting militancy.

Turkey’s prime ministerial office imposed a temporary blackout on coverage of the explosion and urged media to refrain from publishing anything that may cause “fear in the public, panic and disorder and which may serve the aims of terrorist organisations”.