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ISTANBUL: Two bombs exploded in a crowded Istanbul street, killing at least 17 people and wounding more than 150 hours before a key court hearing Monday that could result in a ban on Turkey's ruling party.
An opposition party leader said police believe separatist Kurdish rebels were behind the deadliest attack on civilians in Turkey since 2003 when 63 people were killed in suicide bombings in Istanbul blamed on the Al-Qaeda network.
The Turkish media said the attack late Sunday appeared to be in retaliation for a crackdown on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged a firm response to the "savagery".
The head of Istanbul's forensic medicine institute put the death toll at 17, while Health Minister Recep Akdag warned it could rise as seven people remain in critical condition.
The blasts raised tensions ahead of the start on Monday of a crucial meeting of the Constitutional Court on whether to ban the ruling Justice and Development Party for undermining Turkey's secular system.
Both bombs were planted in concrete rubbish containers on a crowded street lined with shops and cafes in the popular Gungoren neighbourhood on Istanbul's European side, officials said.
A small bomb went off around 10:00pm (1900 GMT) Sunday creating the initial panic.
A second, more powerful explosion followed about 10 minutes later, some 50 metres away, as passers-by and residents milled around the site of the first explosion.
The second bomb claimed all the lives, including that of a 12-year-old girl hit in the heart by a piece of shrapnel as she looked down on the street from her fourth-storey balcony, Anatolia news agency reported.
There were scenes of panic, with people covered in blood fleeing the area littered with debris and shattered glass.
"People gathered after the first blast. There was a real crowd. Five to 10 minutes later there was another one, much stronger than the first," resident Alaattin Hatayoglu told Anatolia.
"The building I was in was shaking. People were wounded in a 40-metre radius," he said.
The authorities did not blame any group for the bombs, but main opposition leader Deniz Baykal, who met with officials handling the case, said the attack was believed to be the work of the PKK.
"This is also the understanding of the authorities," he told reporters.
Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler said earlier that police were examining the explosive used in the first attack and footage from a nearby security camera.
The Turkish military has stepped up operations against the PKK, striking the rebels both inside Turkey and in neighbouring northern Iraq, where they take refuge.
Turkish fighter jets bombed PKK camps in the Qandil mountains in northern Iraq, a major rebel stronghold, on Sunday morning.
Erdogan pledged that the perpetrators would be caught and punished.
"Those responsible for this savagery, wherever they are, will not escape the end that awaits them," he said. "The strongest response our nation will give to this attack... will be to strengthen our unity."
At about the same time as the Istanbul blasts, a Kurdish militant hurled a hand grenade at a police station in Bingol, a provincial capital in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast, before he was shot dead, officials said.
Two other militants who took part in the attack were wounded and captured.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and much of the international community, has conducted bomb attacks against civilians in the past.
The group took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in the southeast in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed more than 37,000 lives.
Islamist and leftist groups have also struck in Turkey's biggest city.
- AFP/ls/ir
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