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Blast in Turkish port wounds one – officials | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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ISTANBUL, (Reuters) – An explosion in a rubbish container wounded one person in Turkey’s Mediterranean port city of Mersin on Wednesday, security officials said.

The blast follows five bombings in Turkish coastal resorts and the commercial capital Istanbul on Sunday and Monday which killed three people and wounded dozens more.

No other details were immediately available about the explosion in Mersin, which coincided with nationwide parades and celebrations marking the end of Turkey’s war of independence in 1922.

The attacks earlier this week were claimed by the Kurdistan Liberation Hawks (TAK) separatist militant group, which threatened to turn Turkey into “hell” and reiterated warnings for tourists to stay away.

The shadowy TAK is believed to be linked to the larger outlawed separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

The PKK took up arms in 1984 with the aim of creating a homeland in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast. More than 30,000 people have since been killed in the separatist conflict.