The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a shadowy group that has claimed deadly bomb attacks in the past, said it was behind a suicide bombing in the southern city of Mersin Tuesday and Thursday's car bombing in the western city of Izmir.

The Mersin bombing wounded 12 policemen, while 16 people, mostly police, were wounded in Izmir.

TAK said the attacks were "acts of revenge" against what it called Ankara's mistreatment of its Kurdish population, and warned of further attacks.

"We are and will continue to claim a heavy price for the attacks against our people and national values," the statement said.

In February, TAK had threatened attacks against security forces, tourist centres and economic facilities in response to Turkish air strikes on hideouts of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq.

Turkish officials say TAK is a front for PKK attacks on civilian targets, while the PKK maintains that it is a splinter group over which it has no control.

TAK has claimed responsibility for several bomb attacks in Turkey's urban centres and tourist areas, the worst of which killed five people, including two foreign tourists, in the Aegean resort of Kusadasi in 2005.

More than 37,000 people have died since 1984 when the PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast.