Turkey confirms suicide bombing wounds 13

ANKARA — Turkey's interior minister on Wednesday confirmed that 13 policemen were wounded in a suicide bombing this week.

The minister, Besir Atalay, said that a man who was being pursued by police detonated the explosives at a checkpoint outside the southern city of Mersin on Tuesday, wounding the policemen — two of them seriously.

Authorities were investigating who was behind the attack, but Mersin Gov. Huseyin Aksoy blamed Kurdish rebels. There has been no claim of responsibility.

Kurdish guerrillas have been fighting for the country's Kurdish-dominated southeast since 1984. The guerrillas have carried out suicide bomb attacks in the past.

Islamic and leftist militants are also active in Turkey.