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Bomb attack against Turkish freight train, no casualties

ANKARA, May 5, 2006 (AFP) - A bomb exploded near a railway line in the mainly Kurdish east of Turkey as a freight train was passing by but there were no casualties, the state-run railway company said Friday.

The blast between two stations in Mus province derailed two wagons and damaged others, the company said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear who planted the bomb, but local security officials suspect it may be the work of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Last July, five railway security officers were killed when a bomb ripped through a train in the southeastern province of Bingol in an attack blamed on the PKK.

More than 37,000 people have been killed since 1984, when the PKK took up arms against the Ankara government for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast and east of the country.

PKK violence has been on the rise since June 2004, when the rebels called off a unilateral ceasefire and began to infiltrate Turkish territory from hideouts in neighbouring northern Iraq.