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Three wounded in bomb blasts in southeast Turkey

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, June 16, 2006 (AFP) - Three bombs exploded on Friday in Turkey's mainly Kurdish south east, injuring three people, media and local sources said.

The first device, placed under a car in the city of Van, exploded in the early hours causing damage only, security sources said.

A second bomb hidden in a dustbin went off later near a national meteorological building in Baskale near Van, slightly hurting three people, the Anatolia news agency said.

And the third explosion happened as a military convoy passed in Hakkari province, south east of Van, without causing injury, local sources said.

The authorities have not said who they believe was behind the blasts.

Southeastern and eastern Turkey have been a theatre of violence off and on since 1984, when the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), blacklisted as a terrorist group by Ankara, the European Union and the United States, began fighting for Kurdish self-rule in the region.

The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.

Earlier, security sources said that a Kurdish rebel had killed himself in a botched grenade attack on security forces who had come to raid his home in eastern Turkey late Thursday.