ISTANBUL – A group connected to the separatist militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has claimed responsibility for an attack last Thursday on a Turkish military bus that killed two soldiers and injured 12 people. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) said in a statement emailed to websites close to the militants that they had fired on the vehicle carrying military personnel close to Foca, a small resort town on the western Aegean coast which is home to a naval base. TAK has claimed responsibility for some past attacks outside the PKK's regular area of operation in the mainly Kurdish southeast, such as a car bomb in Ankara in September 2011 that killed three people. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday's attack, which occurred at a time of intensified clashes between the army and the PKK, was an example of “widening terrorism”. Turkish media reported on Sunday that the driver of the bus had died of his injuries in hospital, bringing the death toll to two. The PKK has fought for autonomy for Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast since 1984, in a conflict which has cost more than 40,000 lives, most of them Kurdish. Turkey, the United States and the European Union list the PKK as a terrorist organisation. – Reuters
