Blast: A remote controlled roadside bomb has killed three Turkish soldiers and a 17-year-old girl in Istanbul
Four people were killed after a roadside bomb destroyed a bus carrying military personnel and their families in Istanbul today.
The remote controlled device was detonated near a military housing complex in the district of Halkali and comes after the Turkish army stepped up operations against Kurdish rebels.
Carnage: Forensic officers search for evidence near the shattered bus, which was carrying military personnel
Three of those killed were Turkish army sergeants and the fourth victim was a 17-year-old girl, according to state news agency Anatolian.The blast wounded nearly a dozen people and two were left in a serious condition, Istanbul's provincial governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu said.
'This is a terrorist attack, and the aim of the attack is clear - to create divisions, tensions and despair,' he said.
No group has yet come forward to claim responsibility for the blast.
Kurdish separatists, based in northern Iraq, have increased attacks on military installations in Turkey's mainly Kurdish south east, but the group has carried out attacks in large cities in the past.
Left wing groups and Islamist militants have also carried out bomb attacks in Istanbul.
The city is due to host a summit of south east European leaders, including foreign ministers from Croatia and Serbia, today.
Turkish military forces began a major deployment of troops and special forces along the border with Iraq yesterday, as fighting has intensified between the army and militants from the illegal Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Television broadcasts showed images of the bus's shattered windows and of the wounded being taken to hospital after the explosion at around 5.30am.
It is unclear how many passengers were on the bus or how many were military personnel.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who has said Kurdish militants would 'drown in their own blood', faces mounting criticism for his government's failure to stop the escalation in violence.
PKK guerrillas killed 11 soldiers at the weekend and one soldier was also killed on Monday when separatists opened fire on two military police units.
The PKK said earlier this month it had scrapped a year-old unilateral ceasefire and resumed attacks against Turkish forces because of military operations against it.
Some 40,000 people have been killed since 1984 when the PKK took up arms to carve out an ethnic homeland in mostly Kurdish southeastern Turkey.
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