Bomb in trash can injures 3 in Istanbul

ISTANBUL, June 15 (Reuters) A bomb left in a trash container at a major outdoor bus station injured three people in central Istanbul today, a police official said.

The bomb was left in a container in Eminonu, a major departure point for buses near the main tourist attractions in Turkey's largest city.

''A bomb has been left in a trash container ... there were three injured,'' the police official told Reuters, adding he did not know the condition of the injured.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Istanbul -- a popular tourism destination -- has been struck by a series of bombings in recent months.

Scores of soldiers and rebels of the outlawed separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have also been killed in separate clashes amid a rise in violence in Turkey's southeast.

Militant groups, including Kurdish separatists, Islamists and ultra-leftists, have carried out attacks on civilians, security and military targets in Turkey in the past.

More than 30,000 people, mostly Kurds, have been killed in the separatist conflict since the PKK took up arms against the state in 1984 with the aim of carving out an ethnic homeland.

The European Union and the United States, like Ankara, view the PKK as a terrorist group.

REUTERS SRS PM1401