Car bomb attack kills 13 Turkish commandos

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) - A car bomb attack in the central Anatolian city of Kayseri killed 13 commandos and wounded 48 others, said the Turkish Army on Saturday.

The soldiers on a vehicle were off-duty said the army when the car exploded at around 08:45 AM, adding there could be civilians among the wounded.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu who visited the attack scene put the number of injured at 56, six of whom he said were in heavy conditions, reported the government-run Anadolu Agency.

Soylu later at a press conference at the local governorate announced that "the attacker" whose identity he did not reveal was apprehended along seven other suspects.

Soldiers from targeted 1st Commando Brigade were active in operations against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters in the mountainous Hakkari Province, wrote Hurriyet newspaper.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey was under a "joint assault by terror groups" in a statement on the presidential website.

"Especially the divisive terror group is using all of its means to trip up Turkey," said Erdogan blaming the PKK against which his troops have been fighting in Kurdish provinces on and off since 1984.

There has been no claim of responsibility by any group for the attack at the time of writing this report.

Both the Islamic State (IS) group and a PKK offshoot Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) have staged large-scale bombings in Turkey over the past year and a half.

Erdogan repeated his call for national mobilization, adding it was time to hold on to "the principles; one nation, one flag, one country, and one state."

HDP BUILDING STORMED

Toward the afternoon, a mob of hundreds mobilized in front of the local headquarters of the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in central Kayseri, first stoning then storming the building.

The crowd shouting "martyrs don't die, homeland won't be divided" draped the HDP building in a Turkish flag, threw computers and files inside from windows as a fire could be seen rising from the roof, reported the private-owned Dogan news agency.

The Kayseri attack followed last week's TAK-claimed twin bombings outside Besiktas soccer stadium in Istanbul that killed at least 38 police officers and eight civilians.

Since then tensions have risen in the country where the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) forged an alliance on a constitutional change with the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) to empower President Erdogan by transferring the cabinet's executive authorities.

Editing by Ava Homa