Faysal Dunlayici, who spent several years in German prisons in the 1990s for attacks against Turkish targets there, was the European spokesman for the Turkish-based PKK.

Dunlayici later had a falling out with PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, after which he moved to northern Iraq.

Sentenced to life-behind-bars in 1999, Ocalan is serving out his term on the island prison of Marmara.

Another PKK operative, Kani Yilmaz, was also killed in the blast, the Europe-based Firat news agency reported on its website.

The Kurdish conflict has claimed some 37,000 lives since 1984 when the PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Turkey as well as the EU and the United States, took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey.