ISTANBUL, Turkey – A bomb struck the convoy of a governor in eastern Turkey (search) on Friday, killing five people and wounding 24, NTV television reported. The governor said he was not hurt.
The Anatolia (search) news agency reported that a truck bomb struck Van regional governor Hikmet Tan's convoy but didn't wound him. Private NTV television, however, said the blast was caused by a remote controlled bomb.
"It seems that my car was the target. Right now I'm in good shape," Tan told NTV, adding that his car was heavily damaged. He said five people were killed.
NTV reported that two of the dead were bystanders.
National Police Spokesman Ramazan Er said police suspected that Kurdish rebels were behind the attack. Tension is high there because Kurdish rebels called off a truce last month, renewing their fight to carve out autonomy for Turkey's Kurdish minority. They make up about 20 percent of the population of 68 million.
Police found another bomb in the area and defused it, Er said.
Television footage showed a car that was reduced to a charred and smoldering chunk of metal. Blood could be seen on the street and windows of a nearby building were shattered. The blast burst a pipe on the street which was flooded by water.
Some 37,000 people were killed in 15 years of separatist fighting until 1999, when the rebels suspended hostilities following the capture of their leader, Abdullah Ocalan (search).
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