ISTANBUL, Aug 11 (AFP) - Turkish police believe that Kurdish militants are the main suspects in deadly bombings in Istanbul and have cast doubt on a claim of responsibility by a group linked to the Al Qaeda terror network, media reports said Wednesday.
Police officials declined to comment on the probe into the four pre-dawn blasts Tuesday, which targeted two tourist hotels in the heart of Istanbul and a gas complex in the city`s outskirts, killing two people and injuring 11 others, mostly foreigners.
The attacks were claimed both by the Abu Hafs (al-Masri) Brigades, an Al Qaeda-linked group, and a previously unknown Kurdish organization, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, which is thought to be linked to rebels who have waged a 15-year separatist war on the Ankara government.
Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu hinted Tuesday that police were trying to find out whether the blasts could be in retaliation for a crackdown on militants from the former Kurdistan Workers` Party (PKK) in Istanbul last week.
Aksu said the police had arrested four alleged members of the group, thought to have been involved in a July 2 bomb attack on the convoy of a governor in eastern Turkey, which claimed six lives.
The interrogation of the four has led the police to believe that four other militants trained in bomb-making are at large in Istanbul and they could have been behind Tuesday`s attacks, the Sabah newspaper reported.
Authorities have identified the four men and are looking for them, it said.
Police have also established that detonators used in the bombings of the Pars and Star Holiday hotels were identical with detonators seized together with the four militants last week, according to Sabah.
The PKK, now known as KONGRA-GEL, called off a five-year unilateral ceasefire with the government on June 1, warning foreign tourists and investors to stay away from Turkey.
The rebels have since been blamed for a series of attacks on security forces in the country`s predmoninantly Kurdish southeast.
A person who called the pro-Kurdish MHA news agency and claimed responsibility for the Istanbul blasts on behalf of the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons said the attacks were to retaliate for operations against Kurdish guerrilas in the region.
The Hurriyet newspaper said the suspected bombers belonged to a group led by senior PKK commander Murat Karayilan, who is known to have supported continued violence in a rift between pacifist and militant wings in the rebel leadership.
Police already had intelligence that the group, which called itself "The August 15 Initiative," was preparing for attacks in big cities, on touristic and economic targets, Hurriyet said.
August 15 is of symbolic importance for the Kurdish rebel movement in Turkey -- on that day in 1984 the PKK carried out its first armed attack on security forces in the southeastern town of Eruh, marking the beginning of a bloody campaign for Kurdish self-rule in the region.
The conflict has claimed some 37,000 lives.