Kurdish militant group says it was behind Istanbul bombing

The KurdistanFreedom Hawks (TAK), an offshoot of the outlawed KurdistanWorkers Party (PKK) militant group, said on Friday it carriedout a suicide bombing in Turkey's biggest city Istanbul thisweek that killed 11 people.

A car bomb ripped through a police bus in central Istanbulduring the morning rush hour on Tuesday near the main touristdistrict, a major university and the mayor's office.

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TAK also warned in the statement on its website that,although it was not deliberately targeting foreigners, Turkeywas no longer safe for tourists.

Turkey is the world's sixth-biggest tourist destination buthas seen a sharp dropoff following a spate of bombings that havekilled hundreds of people in the last 12 months.

Wars in neighbouring Syria and Iraq have fostered ahome-grown Islamic State network blamed for a series of suicidebombings, while the PKK, which is fighting security forces inthe mainly Kurdish southeast, has begun to strike in Istanbuland the capital Ankara.

Separately, Turkish jets targeted and killed a group ofbetween eight and 10 suspected PKK militants near the Iraqiborder, military sources said on Friday.

They said the rebels were spotted late on Thursday in theDaglica region of Hakkari, across the border from the PKKleadership's bases in the remote mountains of northern Iraq.

Peace process collapsed

In Van province, a firefight broke out and police killedthree militants suspected of preparing for an attack, securitysources said. Police raided a home in the town of Ipekyolu andordered the suspects to surrender but were met with gunfire,they said. An air operation to find other militants continued.

The Turkish government blames the autonomy-seeking PKK,classified as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the UnitedStates and the European Union, for the deaths of more than40,000 people, mainly Kurds, since it took up arms against theTurkish state in 1984.

A peace process undertaken in late 2012 collapsed in July,and the conflict is at its deadliest since the 1990s.

The government says 7,600 militants have been killed orcaptured, while hundreds of police officers and soldiers havebeen killed. Opposition parties claim between 500 and 1,000civilians have also perished.

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