A suspected suicide bomber detonated a car outside the southern Turkish city of Mersin while on the run from the police Tuesday, killing himself and wounding 12 officers, officials and media said. One of the wounded police officers was in critical condition, Huseyin Aksoy, the city's governor, told reporters. “We suspect a suicide bombing,” Aksoy said. “The investigation is under way.” State-run Anatolia news agency said the bombing injured 12 officers. Officials could not immediately confirm the report. The governor said the car was believed to contain only its driver, who detonated the device when police tried to stop the vehicle on a road in the outskirts of the Mediterranean city. The television report said police had been following the car after a tip-off. The suspected target for an attack was not immediately clear. The car did not stop despite repeated warnings by the police and exploded on a road outside the city. Television footage showed firemen extinguishing the smoking remains of the vehicle on a motorway, some 10 kilometers Mersin. There has been no immediate claim of responsibility, and the identity of the assailant was not known. Islamist militants, Kurdish and leftist guerrillas have all carried out bomb attacks in Turkey in the past. Some 40,000 people have been killed in the Kurdistan Workers Party's (PKK) conflict with the Turkish state since it broke out in 1984.
