Kurdish group takes credit for Istanbul cafe blast

[tomjez]

2/9/2006 AP
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - A hardline Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility for a bomb attack Thursday that wounded 14 people at an Internet cafe in Istanbul, a Kurdish news agency reported.

The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons Organization, a hardline group believed to be linked to the main Kurdish guerrilla group, the Kurdistan Workers Party, claimed responsibility for the bombing in a telephone call, the Firat News Agency, based in the Netherlands, said on its Web site.

The group has demanded that jailed Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan be moved out of solitary confinement. Ocalan has been kept on a prison island near Istanbul since his capture on Feb. 15, 1999.

The shadowy group had claimed responsibility for a number of bomb attacks in Turkey, including a blast in the Aegean resort town of Cesme last summer that wounded 21 people.

Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah said six police officers and two civilians, including a child, were wounded when the bomb went off inside the cafe Thursday. Six other passers-by, all civilians, were injured in the street, he said.

Cerrah said the injured child was in serious condition.

Coskun Kilic, who helped evacuate some of the injured, said a police officer was also badly injured.

``I carried seven or more injured,'' Kilic told The Associated Press at the scene. ``Their hair were burnt and two of them, a child and an officer were unconscious and badly injured.''

``The strength of the blast had sent the chairs into the street and there was smoke all over inside, you could barely see them,'' Kilic said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack in the city's Bayrampasa district. The Internet cafe was frequented by police officers from the nearby local headquarters of Istanbul's riot police.

Police cordoned off the area, and ambulances rushed the injured to hospitals.

Radical Islamic, Kurdish and leftist militants are active in the city. Al-Qaida-linked Turkish militants carried out a series of suicide bombings in Istanbul in November 2003, killing some 60 people.

[tomjez]

Great. Palestinian Style, it's getting better and better, I'm about to change my mind on PKK...

Shame on them....

[tomjez]

And it's in Bayrampasa, loads of kurds live in this very poor district of istanbul...

Bir internet kafe çalışanı da, “üç gündür kafeye aynı saatlerde gelen 25-26 yaşlarında bir erkek, bugün bir bilgisayarın yanına bir çanta bıraktı ve tuvalete gideceğini söyleyerek kafeden ayrıldı. 2-3 dakika sonra da patlama meydana geldi” dedi.

Courageaous guy "he left a bag near the computer and left, saying he was going to the toilets".

I just hope they're wrong and it's not a kurdish group who did that. But Islamist make bigger attacks, leftists usually blow themselves up in the toilets, so that looks like TAK signature...Hopefully not.

[Piling]

And it's in Bayrampasa, loads of kurds live in this very poor district of istanbul...

That is right, most of poor displaced Kurds live in these place. In any case, it is a great cowardness, they are not even kamikaze !

[pepula]

this is totally the wrong approach to freedom and independance or kurdistan. violence really is NOT the answer

[tomjez]

Well if violence can blow up the whole turkish army, yes it is the answer, but considering that 16 years of armed struggle did not manage to conquer the tiniest portion of kurdistan, I think blowing up innocent people in an internet cafe won't be much efficient either.

[zurderer]

I think we should sent all kurds at turkish land to kurdistan, and give them independence.

That lands are not so much precious.

[tomjez]

Yeah with all the problem Kurds are causing to Turkey I really don't understand why the stick to these lands so much. Stubborn people.

[Tirigan]

I don’t know about other Kurds, but personally I’ll always support such acts.

[zurderer]

Yeah with all the problem Kurds are causing to Turkey I really don't understand why the stick to these lands so much. Stubborn people.

I think because of blind nationalism, infact we have nothing gain from that lands. we were wasting money, people and It criple our politic.

Morons forced kurds to immigrate Turkish cities, not we have more kurd than kurdistan have, and of course more problem like bombs against devil students.

If kurds what, independence and apo,we should give what they want.
And at least can take our cities and peace back.

[tomjez]

Well if you can give them independance WITHOUT apo, I would be grateful, I'd like to travel to Kurdistan freely without secret services of a crazy communist dictatorship on my ass all the time.

[Piling]

And Apo loves Turkey so much, it would be cruel to deprive him of his MOTHERLAND

[zurderer]

Well if you can give them independance WITHOUT apo, I would be grateful, I'd like to travel to Kurdistan freely without secret services of a crazy communist dictatorship on my ass all the time.

Errr, you know that is kurdish preference, am I wrong?

independence and apo. errr well infact apo and independence.

[zurderer]

And Apo loves Turkey so much, it would be cruel to deprive him of his MOTHERLAND

If you ask him to stay in jail or to rule kurdistan, his preference would not be turkish jails.

ungrateful guy he is. we are take caring him like a baby, and he would still prefer to be citizen of free kurdistan.

[Piling]

I'm not sure he would like to be an ordinary citizen.

But all other Kurds would be happy to have a free land, certainly.