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Explosion Rocks Southern Turkey


An explosion near a paramilitary police station in southern Turkey has left one person dead and two wounded.

The blast took place Friday in the southern Antalya area. It was not immediately clear who was behind the incident.

Deputy Governor Recep Yuksel told local media that the cause of the blast was being investigated. He said the explosion took place in a residential part of Goynuk town, far from any tourist area.

The blast came just a week after a car bombing in the capital, Ankara, that killed three people and injured more than 30 others.

Kurdish militants claimed responsibility for that blast.

The latest incident comes amid a Turkish military crackdown against rebel Kurdish fighters, including bombing raids on their bases in northern Iraq.

The uptick in violence comes even as Kurdish lawmakers of the legal Peace and Democracy Party ended their boycott of Turkey's parliament in an effort to bring peace to the country.

The party led the boycott after the June parliamentary elections when some Kurdish lawmakers were barred from taking their seats because of alleged involvement in terrorist activities.

Turkey's large Kurdish minority has long been demanding more political recognition in the country.

Kurdish militants, led by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) took up arms in the region in 1984. Some 45,000 people have died in the conflict.

The United States, the European Union and Turkey consider the PKK a terrorist organization.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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