Not One, But Two Deadly Bombings This Week

I will depart Turkey tomorrow, but unfortunately, my last week here will include two deadly urban bombings that injured nearly thirty people over the past week. The first bombing occurred Tuesday morning and involved a man who killed himself and injured 12 of the police officers who were pursuing him when he detonated the car he was driving. The car contained 30 kilograms of C-4 plastic explosives, and Turkish officials and the media have largely blamed the bombing on the PKK. The second bombing occurred this morning in the Konak district of the Aegean city of İzmir, Turkey's third-largest city. This bombing targeted the city's police force, and reports indicate that it injured 16 officers who were being transported on a dolmuş at the time of the explosion. Turkish officials and media reports have also been near unanimous in their consensus that the second bombing is also the work of the PKK.