The vehicle which exploded outside local government offices Monday ripped through the center of Turkey’s southeastern city of Van, wounding at least 27 people.
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The “large explosion” is understood to have targeted the party’s provincial offices in the city, an MP for Turkey’s ruling AK party told CNN Turk.
Two of the injured were in critical condition, Van police chief Suat Ekici said earlier.
Protests erupted in southeastern Turkey after the government sacked about two dozen elected mayors from Kurdish-run municipalities on Sunday (11 September) and replaced them with new ones.
Turkey’s finance minister on Monday accused local municipalities under the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) of having financed PKK terrorism, Anadolu agency reported.
The blast tore the front off a four-storey building.
The Turkish government granted permission for the family visit before the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha, countering alarm over Ocalan’s welfare.
Turkey’s state-run news agency says several people have been injured by an explosion near the ruling party headquarters and the governor’s office in the eastern province of Van.
“It is a step taken too late in my opinion”, Erdogan said, as cited by Reuters.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his government’s commitment to eliminating IS in Syria and the threat the group poses to Turkey.
The YPG, which controls swathes of northern Syria, also said in a statement the political transition needed to include all parties, including a Kurdish-led autonomous administration in northern Syria.
“They are carrying TNT (explosives)”.
Concerns had been raised since the 15 July coup attempt in Turkey over the welfare of the Kurdish leader. Twelve of the mayors have been arrested, its statement said.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the PKK first took up arms in 1984, with the aim of carving out an independent state for Turkey’s Kurdish minority.
In a statement, the United States embassy in Ankara expressed concerns over the resulting clashes in the southeast between protesters and police after the mayors were suspended.
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The removed officials, replaced by government-appointed deputy and district governors, are suspected of colluding with groups the Turkish government considers terrorist organizations.
