ANKARA, Aug 1 (AFP) - Turkish security forces have foiled a large-scale bomb plot on a road in the southeastern province of Hakkari, the local governor said on Sunday, pointing an accusing finger at Kurdish rebels.
Governor Erdogan Gurbuz told journalists that army commandoes discovered on Saturday 10 gas canisters to which "large amounts" of TNT explosive were attached, placed on several spots along a busy road linking the villages of Gecitli and Pinarca, Anatolia news agency reported.
They were designed to explode simultaneously, he said.
"The devices, which would have caused a great loss of life and material damage if they had exploded, were disactivated by our security forces," Gurbuz said.
The governor blamed the plot on "the treacherous terrorist organization," a reference to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a bloody 15-year campaign for self-rule in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey.
In the nearby province of Diyarbakir, meanwhile, a Kurdish rebel was captured and a soldier was injured in a shootout between a group of PKK militants and security forces, local officials said.
The PKK, now also known as KONGRA-GEL, ended a five-year unilateral ceasefire with the Ankara government on June 1, raising tensions in the region after a relative calm during the truce period.
The Kurdish conflict in Turkey has claimed some 37,000 lives since 1984 when the PKK took up arms for self-rule.