PKK Suspected in Turkish Blast

Via Chinaview.cn -

ANKARA, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Turkish Chief of General Staff Yasar Buyukanit said that the blast which occurred in a busy shopping center in Ankara on Tuesday, leaving six people dead and over 80 others injured, was caused by an organized terrorist organization.

Following his visit to injured people in Ankara's Hacettepe Hospital, Buyukanit told reporters that the incident shook him, adding that he thought it was not a common crime when he saw the scene of explosion, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

"We have to focus on those who are behind this terrorist organization. We have to look at those who feed terrorist organizations. I will not say another word," Buyukanit said.

Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul denied that there was a Pakistani fatality in the explosion in Ulus district of Ankara.

Local media's initial reports said that a Pakistani national was among the dead in the deadly blast.

"We will make a detailed statement about the explosion tomorrow," Gul added.

The private NTV television channel quoted police sources as reporting that the explosion was caused by A-4 plastic explosives, commonly used by the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK).

The PKK, which was listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, has staged similar attacks targeting civilians in the past.

More than 30,000 people have been killed since the group launched an armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in the mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey in 1984.