Bomb Blast Injures 23, Damages Buildings In Southeast Turkey

The car, parked near a police station in Semdinli, in the province of Hakkari, "was loaded with a large amount of explosives by members of the PKK terrorist organization," the Hakkari governor's office said.

The statement was a reference to the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party, deemed by Turkey, the European Union and the United States to be a terrorist organization.

Four soldiers and three policemen were among the injured, the statement said, adding that the blast left 67 homes and shops uninhabitable and shattered the windows of other buildings nearby.

Hakkari Governor Erdogan Gurbuz said none of the wounded were in a life-threatening condition.

"Most of the injured were treated as outpatients. There is no one left in hospital at the moment," he told the NTV news channel around noon.

Television footage showed a street littered with debris and pieces of glass, patrolled by armed soldiers.

Semdinli is located in Turkey's southeastern corner, only several kilometers (miles) from the borders with Iraq and Iran.

Unrest in the southeast increased this year after the PKK called off a five-year unilateral truce in June 2004 and its militants began sneaking back to Turkey from the mountains of neighboring northern Iraq, where they had retreated after declaring the truce in 1999.

The Turkish army has warned that the rebels are bringing along large amounts of explosives.

Kurdish militants have been blamed also for several recent bomb attacks in Istanbul and in Turkey's western tourist areas.

A minibus was blown up in the Aegean coast resort of Kusadasi on July 16, killing five people, including a British woman and an Irish teenager.

Five people were injured when a car bomb exploded at a gas station in Istanbul last month.