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Turkey arrests two suspects behind resort bombing

ANKARA, April 13, 2007 (AFP) - Turkish police have arrested two suspects believed to be behind a series bomb attacks last year at a popular southwestern resort that injured 10 British tourists, the Anatolia news agency reported Friday.

A total of 21 people were hurt on August 27 in the blasts that shook the resort of Marmaris, a popular destination for British vacationers.

The suspects, identified only by their initials U.A. and S.G., were captured in the Aegean city of Izmir and were currently being questioned by anti-terrorist police, Anatolia said.

Both men were suspected to be responsible for a hand grenade attack in September last year on a checkpoint near a village north of Marmaris that left a paramilitary soldier injured.

Police were looking for one other suspect, it added.

Last year, a man believed to be the mastermind behind the Marmaris bombings was arrested in southeastern Turkey.

A radical Kurdish group calling itself the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), had claimed reponsibility for the Marmaris bombings which it said were a response to Ankara's "mistreatment" of its Kurdish population and of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence on a prison island.

In a statement last month, the group -- blamed for several other bomb attacks in Turkey last year -- threatened to hit tourist areas and warned European visitors to stay away.

Turkish officials say TAK is a front which the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a separatist group seeking self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast, uses for attacks on civilian targets.

The PKK claims TAK is a splinter group over which it has no control.

Friday's arrests came at a time when the Turkish army was carrying out large-scale operations to crack down on Kurdish rebels with the advent of spring, which is the time when the rebels usually step up attacks.

Turkish army chief Yasar Buyukanit said Thursday that clashes this month had left 10 Turkish soldiers and 29 PKK rebels dead.