(AP)- A car bomb apparently targeting military personnel killed four people and wounded 34 Thursday in the Kurdish-dominated southeastern city of Diyarbakir , the prime minister said.
A bus transporting military personnel was passing by a five-star hotel when the bomb exploded, the state-run Anatolia news agency said. Four people were killed and 52 people wounded in the blast, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
At least three people could be seen lying unconscious amid burning cars, and a bus was engulfed in flames, reports said.
Authorities blamed the blast on Kurdish rebels. Police were searching for two suspected Kurdish militants.
The attack - which shattered the windows of surrounding buildings - appeared to be a retaliation to three airstrikes by Turkish warplanes against Kurdish rebel shelters in northern Iraq last month.
Rebels from the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, have battled for autonomy in southeastern Turkey for more than two decades - a campaign that has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths. The group uses strongholds in northern Iraq for cross-border strikes.
In October, Parliament authorized Turkey's military to strike back at rebels across the border.