Thousands rally after strike kills 35 Kurds

Police used tear gas and water cannon Thursday against hundreds of stone-throwing youths protesting against an air strike in southeastern Turkey that killed 35 Kurds.

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The violence came at the end of a demonstration in Istanbul's main Taksim Square called by the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy (BDP) party, which said the air strike targeted local villagers engaged in smuggling.

The Turkish military said it had hit separatist Kurdish guerrillas, but an official of the country's ruling Justice and Development Party admitted later there might have been a blunder.

More than 2,000 Kurds gathered in the square, some carrying photographs of the bodies of those killed and calling Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan a murderer.

Others yelled slogans in support of the banned separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan.

As the demonstration broke up several hundred protestors, many of them masked, began throwing stones at the police, who responded with tear gas and water cannon and made several arrests.




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Source: AFP



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