Turkey bomber's tactics parallel Kurdish rebels'

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A 28-year-old former convict who blew himself up in Turkey's capital, killing six people and injuring dozens, used methods in his attack that were similar to those of a Kurdish rebel group, authorities said. Ankara Gov. Kemal Onal said Tuesday's suicide bomber, Guven Akkus, had spent two years in prison for hanging illegal posters and resisting police. He did not say what kind of posters they were or if Akkus was affiliated with the separatist Kurdish rebel group, the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. The government-run Anatolia news agency reported that, at the time of his arrest for resisting police in May 1996, Akkus was affiliated to a little-known militant leftist group called the Turkish Union of Revolutionary Communists. The PKK, which has a Marxist background, has previously developed links with other leftist groups. "The type of the explosives and equipment used is similar to those used by the separatist group," Onal said Wednesday.