Iranians Injured in Van Blast Return Home: Official
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – All of the Iranians wounded in a car bomb blast in Turkey’s southeastern city of Van returned to Iran through land border on Tuesday morning, Iran’s consul general in Turkey’s Erzurum announced.
The official said the seven Iranians have returned home via Razi border crossing.
Earlier on Tuesday, Iran’s Ambassador to Ankara Mohammad Ebrahim Taherianfard had put the number of the Iranian injured at 6, saying Turkey’s interior minister has told him in a telephone conversation that they have recovered, been discharged from the hospital and are going to go home through land border.
On Monday, suspected Kurdish militants detonated a car bomb near local government offices in Van, wounding scores of people, a day after two dozen mayors from Kurdish-run municipalities were stripped of their office.
According to Turkish officials, a total of 48 people were wounded in the blast, including two police officers and six Iranians.
The explosion hit some 200 meters from the Van provincial governor's office, ripping through the city's central district and setting buildings and cars aflame.
Van sits about 100 km (60 miles) from the border with Iran.
Southeastern Turkey has suffered numerous bombings since the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in the region, abandoned a ceasefire in 2015.
