Turkey pleads for unity amid PKK attacks

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GAZIANTEP, Turkey, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- The Turkish people are called on to stand together to confront challenges to national unity, an official said following an attack during an Islamic holiday.

Turkish officials said 13 suspects were captured following a deadly bombing last weekend in Gaziantep, near the Turkish border with Syria.

Gaziantep Gov. Erdal Ata said residents should stand together given regional conflicts.

"We have lived up until now in peace. Nobody can disturb our sense of unity," he was quoted by Turkish newspaper Today's Zaman as saying. "Those committing such assaults cannot be the friends of anybody living in Turkey."

Turkish President Abdullah Gul described the attack as "an act of terror" after authorities suggested the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known by its Kurdish initials PKK, was behind the attack.

The PKK denied responsibility for the bombing.

The public prosecutor's office in Hakkari, near the Iranian border, said an investigation was under way into an attack on Turkish Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin. He said PKK supporters in the region had pelted the interior minister with stones following his recent visit.

Turkish military operations along the southern border left around 150 PKK fighters dead last month.