Two killed in blast in eastern Turkish city

Diyarbakir (Turkey), Mar 9: Two people were killed and 12 wounded in an explosion today (Mar 9, 2006) in the eastern Turkish city of Van, police said.

The state Anatolian news agency said the blast might have been caused by a suicide bomber, but this report could not immediately be confirmed.

Police said the blast occurred near the office of the Van governor. They said an investigation was underway into the cause of the explosion but gave no further information.

Tensions have recently been running high in Van, a mainly Kurdish city near the Iranian border.

A Van-based state prosecutor triggered a crisis this week between Turkey's powerful military and the civilian authorities by accusing a top general of abusing his position and setting up an illegal group he said was trying to foment unrest in the Kurdish southeast in order to harm Ankara's EU membership bid.

His claims have outraged the military and embarrassed the government, which has distanced itself from the prosecutor's allegations and defended General Yasar Buyukanit, who heads Turkey's land forces.

Buyukanit, tipped to become the next chief of the military general staff in August when incumbent Hilmi Ozkok is due to retire, served in southeast Turkey between 1997 and 2000.

Turkish troops and security forces have been battling separatist Kurdish rebels in the region since 1984 in a conflict which has claimed more than 30,000 lives.

The violence is at a much lower intensity now than at the height of the conflict in the 1980s and 1990s. But a series of bomb blasts in the region in recent months has stirred concern about a return to increased violence.

The European Union, which began membership talks with Turkey last October, has urged Ankara to do more to relieve poverty in the southeast and also to bolster the cultural rights of its large Kurdish population.

REUTERS