Kurdistan Observer

Dozens Injured In Clashes With Pro-Kurd Rebel Mourners

DIYARBAKIR (Amed), (Northern Kurdistan), March 28 (Reuters) - Thirty-five people, including 11 police, were injured in Turkey on Tuesday in violence which started when mourners at a funeral for Kurdish militants clashed with police, officials said.

Seventy offices and other workplaces were damaged, and one bank in the southeastern, mainly Kurdish, city of Diyarbakir was completely burned down, security officials said.

Several arrests were made before police brought the violence under control at around 10.30 p.m. (1930 GMT), but no figures were available.

The clashes started at funeral ceremonies for 14 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) killed last weekend by security forces during a military operation in the region.

In Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey's southeast, youths hurled Molotov cocktails and stones at armoured personnel carriers. Police, many of them wielding riot shields, used teargas and truncheons against the protesters.

The demonstrators, waving PKK flags and pictures of jailed rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, also broke windows of nearby offices and shops.

More police and troops were drafted into Diyarbakir from nearby towns to help restore order, security officials said.

Police and protesters also clashed during a funeral ceremony in the city of Adana near the Mediterranean coast.