News

At least five people have been killed and a dozen injured in a bomb attack on a military convoy in the Turkish city of Istanbul as Ankara ups its crackdown on the country's Kurdish militants.

The explosion came early on Tuesday when a roadside bomb ripped through a bus passing through the Halkali district, a suburb on the European side of the city where military housing complexes are located, AFP cited Turkish media as saying.

Two soldiers and a 17-year-old girl were killed on board the vehicle which was carrying a number of military personnel and their families.

The death toll rose to five when two more soldiers died in the hospital of the severe injuries they had sustained in the blast, according to Istanbul Governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu.