Second train explosion in the southeast of Turkey
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Turkey has suffered it's second train attack within the space of a week in the eastern part of the country. The freight train derailed when a mine was detonated on the tracks while traveling between the cities of Erzurum and Erzican. Security sources believe that the separatist Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) were behind the attack - although no one has claimed responsibility as of yet. No one was hurt, officials said. The train was carrying mostly construction materials between the two cities.
Erzurum governor Celalettin Guvenc said, "The mine was set off by remote control and no one was hurt in the incident," adding that, "one carriage was overturned and six carriages are lying on their side."
In a related incident, bomb experts were investigating a suspicious package found beneath a railway bridge near the site of the explosion, and forces have launched an operation in the region.
The region is being plagued by a renewed violence which had dropped off following the arrest of the Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999.
The problem now say the Turkish military is that a large number of PKK militants are crossing the border into Turkey from Iraq in the last few months armed with explosives used in homemade mines.