A public bus burns at the scene of a car bomb attack in the central Anatolian city of Kayseri, Turkey, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2016.

ISTANBUL — A car bomb blast killed 13 Turkish troops and wounded 55 persons, most of them military personnel, in the central Anatolian province of Kayseri on Saturday morning, according to official figures.

In a statement, the Turkish armed forces said the car bomb went off at 8:45 a.m. and targeted on-leave military personnel from the Kayseri Commando Brigade.

The army said 48 troops were wounded and said that civilian citizens may have also been hurt in the "treacherous act."

Speaking in Kayseri shortly after the blast, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said 55 people had been wounded in total and that six were in critical condition.

"We are determined in our fight against terrorism," the minister said.

Speaking alongside him at a joint press conference, Turkish Chief of Staff Hulusi Akar vowed to continue the "fight against terrorists inside and outside the country" until "every last terrorist is neutralized."

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

The state-run Anadolu Agency said the car bomb went off at an entrance gate of Erciyes University, hitting a public transportation bus that included on-leave soldiers among its passengers.

Images taken moments after the explosion showed a smoking public bus, still in flames, with its windows blown open and its interior blackened.

The blast comes a week after a car bomb struck riot police posted outside a soccer stadium in Istanbul following a match. That attack killed 44 people, mostly police officers, and wounded scores of others. Kurdish militants, who tend to target military and police, claimed the Istanbul attack.

Turkey is facing a wide range of security challenges including renewed conflict in the predominantly Kurdish southeast. Turkey is a member of NATO and partner in the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State group, which has been blamed for multiple attacks in Turkey.

A state of emergency was declared following a botched July 15 coup attempt.

Speaking about the Kayseri explosion, Vice Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak said in remarks broadcast on NTV that "treacherous factions" had taken aim at commandos from the Kayseri Airforce Brigade, who had been "training exclusively for the safety of our people."

Turkey's prime ministry office imposed a temporary blackout on coverage of the explosion and urged media to refrain from publishing anything that may cause "fear in the public, panic and disorder and which may serve the aims of terrorist organizations."

Ayse Wieting, Bulut Emiroglu and Neyran Elden in Istanbul also contributed reporting. </s> Thirteen soldiers were killed and 48 more were injured when a car bomb hit a bus transporting off-duty military personnel in the central Turkish city of Kayseri on Saturday, one week after a twin bombing targeted police in Istanbul.

The blast is likely to further anger a Turkish public frustrated by a string of deadly bombings this year, several of which have been claimed by Kurdish militants, including last week‘s, which killed 44 and wounded more than 150.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but deputy prime minister Veysi Kaynak likened the attack to last Saturday‘s dual bombings outside the stadium of Istanbul soccer team Besiktas, later claimed by an offshoot of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

“The car bomb attack resembles the Besiktas attack in terms of its style,“ he told a group of reporters, adding the incident would not put Turkey off of its goal of fighting militancy.

The military confirmed 13 personnel were killed and 48 wounded and said civilians may also have been injured in the attack. The wounded were transported to hospital for care, it said.

The bus was stopped at a red light near the campus of Erciyes University in Kayseri when a car approached it and then detonated, broadcaster NTV said.

Defence minister Fikri Isik said on Twitter that Turkey would redouble its efforts to fight militancy. “We will fight these cowards with a national mobilisation,“ he said, without elaborating.

Turkey faces multiple security threats including spillover from the fight against Islamic State in northern Syria, where it is a member of a U.S.-led coalition against the militant group.

It also faces regular attacks from Kurdish militants, who have been waging a three-decade insurgency for autonomy in largely Kurdish southeast Turkey. </s> Thirteen soldiers were killed and 48 others wounded in a blast in the Turkish city of Kayseri, according to a statement released by Turkey's Armed Forces. The statement adds that civilians might also have been wounded in the blast.

A car bomb exploded near a public bus in Turkey on Saturday, killing and wounding several people, according to the country's Anadolu state news agency.

A vehicle rigged with a bomb exploded next to the bus -- which was transporting off-duty soldiers, the news agency reported. The blast happened near Erciyes University in the central province of Kayseri, according to a tweet from Anadolu.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım are being briefed on the situation, according to the news agency. More than 25 people were wounded, Reuters reported. Immediately after the blast, at least a half dozen ambulances arrived on the scene. Images showed people with head wounds and at least one person being taken away on a stretcher. The attack came exactly a week after a pair of bombings in Istanbul killed 44 people, including 37 police officers, and injured 155 others. The two explosions last Saturday occurred after a heavily attended soccer game at Besiktas Vodafone Arena. A Kurdish militant group called the Kurdish Freedom Hawks claimed responsibility for last week's bombings. It stated on its website that the Turkish people were not the target of the attack. The latest violence follows a wave of deadly bombings that have struck Turkey this year. </s> Civilians may have also been wounded in the blast, according to the Turkish Armed Forces. Of the injured, six people are in critical condition, said Turkey's Health Minister Recep Akdag.

A vehicle rigged with a bomb exploded next to the bus -- which was transporting off-duty soldiers, Anadolu reported. The blast happened near Erciyes University in the central province of Kayseri, according to a tweet from Anadolu.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım are being briefed on the situation, according to the news agency.

A police officer and people walking next to the wreck of public bus following an explosion on December 17, 2016 in Kayseri, central Turkey. A video showed a decimated bus with smoke rising out of the vehicle. Immediately after the blast, at least a half dozen ambulances arrived on the scene. Images showed people with head wounds and at least one person being taken away on a stretcher. The attack came exactly a week after a pair of bombings in Istanbul killed 44 people, including 37 police officers, and injured 155 others. The two explosions last Saturday occurred after a heavily attended soccer game at Besiktas Vodafone Arena. A Kurdish militant group called the Kurdish Freedom Hawks claimed responsibility for last week's bombings. It stated on its website that the Turkish people were not the target of the attack. The latest violence follows a wave of deadly bombings that have struck Turkey this year. </s> ISTANBUL — A suicide car bomber set off an explosion Saturday that demolished a public bus transporting off-duty soldiers in Turkey's central province of Kayseri, killing 13 troops and wounding 56 other people, authorities said.

Saturday's blast comes a week after a car bomb attack claimed by Kurdish militants killed 44 people, mainly riot police, and wounded over 150 others near a soccer stadium in Istanbul.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said the identity of the Kayseri attacker was known and that seven people had been taken into custody in connection with the attack. Police were searching for five others.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the suicide bomber ambushed a commando brigade on weekend leave in the city of Kayseri.

The Turkish army said 48 troops were among the wounded in Saturday's "treacherous attack." The state-run Anadolu Agency said the explosion at the entrance gate to Erciyes University hit a bus transporting off-duty soldiers.

Speaking in Kayseri, Health Minister Recep Akdag told reporters 56 people had been wounded in the attack, including four who were in critical condition.

Images taken moments after the explosion showed a smoking public bus, still in flames, with its windows blown open and its interior blackened.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the statements of top officials suggested suspicion was focused on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which Ankara and the West consider a terrorist organization. Kurdish militants have claimed multiple attacks against soldiers and police across Turkey this year in violence that has also caused many casualties among civilians.

"Turkey is under a combined attack by terrorist organizations, especially the divisive terrorist organization," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement Saturday, referring to the PKK.

Turkey has fought the PKK for decades in a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. The collapse of a two-and-a-half year cease-fire in July 2015 set the stage for a violent new chapter and ushered vast security operations in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast.

Turkey is also at odds with Western-backed Kurdish factions fighting against Islamic State extremists in neighboring Syria and Iraq. Turkey views these groups as extensions of the PKK.

"We know that these attacks we have endured are not unrelated to happenings in Syria and Iraq, or even our economical fluctuations," Erdogan said.

A state of emergency was declared following a botched July 15 coup attempt in Turkey and remains in force. The Turkish government has detained tens of thousands of people and fired tens of thousands of others for alleged ties to a cleric-led movement it says was behind the attempted coup, a claim the group denies.

As usual with attacks in Turkey, the prime ministry office imposed a temporary blackout on coverage of Saturday's explosion and urged media to refrain from publishing anything that may cause "fear in the public, panic and disorder and which may serve the aims of terrorist organizations." </s> A car bomb attack on a bus carrying off-duty military personnel killed 13 soldiers and wounded 55 in the central Turkish city of Kayseri on Saturday, an incident President Tayyip Erdogan blamed on Kurdish militants.

The blast, a week after a twin bombing targeted police in Istanbul, is likely to further outrage a public angered by a series of attacks this year - several claimed by Kurdish militants, others by Islamic State - and a failed coup in July.

It is also likely to increase tension in Turkey‘s mainly Kurdish southeast, where militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have waged a three-decade insurgency that has seen some of its worst fighting in the last year.

“The style and goals of the attacks clearly show the aim of the separatist terrorist organisation is to trip up Turkey, cut its strength and have it focus its energy and forces elsewhere,“ Erdogan said in a statement.

“We know that these attacks we are being subjected to are not independent from the developments in our region, especially in Iraq and Syria.“

Erdogan frequently refers to the PKK as “the separatist terrorist organisation“. The PKK, which wants autonomy for the Kurdish minority, is considered a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union and Turkey.

Turkey, a Nato member and part of the US coalition against Islamic State, has also been angered by Washington‘s backing of the Syrian Kurdish fighters against Islamic State.

Ankara sees the Washington-backed militia as an extension of the PKK and is worried the advance of Kurdish fighters across its borders in Syria and in Iraq, could inflame Kurdish militants at home.

Erdogan confirmed that 13 people had been killed and 55 wounded. All of those killed and 48 of the wounded were off-duty military personnel, according to a military statement.

The bus was stopped at a red light near the campus of Erciyes University in Kayseri when a car approached it and then detonated, broadcaster NTV said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak likened the attack to last Saturday‘s dual bombings outside the stadium of Istanbul soccer team Besiktas, later claimed by a PKK offshoot. Forty-four people died and more than 150 were wounded in that attack.

“The car bomb attack resembles the Besiktas attack in terms of its style,“ he told reporters, adding the incident would not put Turkey off its goal of fighting militancy.

Defence minister Fikri Isik said on Twitter that Turkey would redouble its efforts to fight militancy. “We will fight these cowards with a national mobilisation,“ he said, referring to Erdogan‘s push against militant organisations.

Turkey faces multiple security threats including spillover from the fight against Islamic State in northern Syria. </s> At least 13 people died and 42 others wounded early Saturday in a bus crash in the central Eskisehir province of Turkey, local authorities said.

The accident occurred in Eskisehir as the coach was on its way to the northwestern Bursa province from the capital Ankara.

The tour bus, belonging to Kartallar Gezi firm, reportedly hit trees on the roadside of the Eskisehir-Bursa highway.

The injured were taken to nearby hospitals. </s> This picture obtained from the Ihlas News Agency shows a police officer and people walking next to the wreck of public bus following an explosion in Kayseri, central Turkey on Saturday.

Thirteen Turkish soldiers were killed and dozens more wounded in a car bombing targeting off-duty conscripts being taken by bus on a weekend shopping trip, the latest in a string of attacks to rock Turkey in recent months.

Forty-eight soldiers were wounded in Saturday's attack in the central Anatolian city of Kayseri, the army said in a statement, adding that there could also be civilian casualties.

Television pictures showed that the bus had been reduced to a smouldering wreck by the impact of the blast, as wounded were taken to waiting ambulances.

The explosion comes a week after 44 people were killed on December 10 in a double bombing in Istanbul after a football match. The attack was claimed by Kurdish militants.

Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak said in televised comments that the attack in Kayseri was "unfortunately similar" to last weekend's strikes in Istanbul.

The army said that the bus — carrying low-ranking privates and non-commissioned officers — was attacked after leaving the commando headquarters in the city.

The bus was owned by the municipal transport authorities in Kayersi but was transporting the soldiers who had taken permission to go to a local market for the day, the Dogan news agency said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been informed of the attack by the chief of staff General Hulusi Akar, Anadolu added.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu was on his way to the city, it said.

Turkey has seen a spate of deadly bombings in a bloody 2016 blamed both on jihadists and Kurdish militants that have left dozens dead and put the country on daily alert.

In June, 47 people were killed in a triple suicide bombing and gun attack at Istanbul's Ataturk airport, with authorities blaming the Islamic State group.

Another 57 people including 34 children were killed in August in a suicide attack by an IS-linked bomber at a Kurdish wedding in the southeastern city of Gaziantep.

Kurdish militants have twice struck with bombings that killed dozens in Ankara in February and March.

The attacks have come with the civil war still raging in neighbouring Syria, where Turkey is staging its own incursion to force jihadists and Kurdish militia from the border area.

Turkey is also still reeling from a failed July 15 coup blamed on the US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen that has been followed by a relentless purge of his alleged supporters from all state institutions.

One of the main cities of central Turkey, Kayseri is a key industrial hub with a population of over one million and usually seen as a peaceful area.

It is well west of the southeast of the country that has been hit by months of deadly fighting between the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the security forces.

There was no immediate indication of who was behind the latest attack.

The government slapped a temporary broadcast ban on footage of the attack, as is becoming typical in the aftermath of major incidents in the country.

The Turkish military has stepped up operations against the PKK after a fragile ceasefire broke down in the summer of 2015. Since then, there has been a dramatic surge in violence that shows no sign of ending.

Last week's double bombing in Istanbul, which targeted police after a match of the Besiktas football club, was claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) seen as a radical offshoot of the PKK.

The attack in Istanbul prompted a sharp response from Erdogan, who vowed Ankara would "fight the scourge of terrorism right to the end".

"They should know that they will not get away with it ... They will pay a heavier price." </s> Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan says the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is responsible for a car bomb attack on a bus in the central city of Kayseri that killed 13 people and wounded 55 more, almost all of them soldiers. Scarlett Cvitanovich reports. </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Besiktas TV presenter flees as blast hits stadium

A twin bomb attack on police officers outside a football stadium in Turkey's largest city, Istanbul, has killed 38 people and injured many more.

A car bomb hit a police vehicle and a suicide bomber detonated a suicide vest in quick succession late on Saturday.

The blasts occurred near the stadium of top-division team Besiktas, two hours after a match. Ten arrests were made.

The government says initial findings point towards Kurdish militants, who have targeted police in the past.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told CNN Turk news channel that "arrows point" to the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK).

Thirty of those killed in the attack were police officers, officials say.

A further 155 people were being treated in hospital, 14 of them in intensive care, health officials say.

Photographs posted on Instagram after the explosion showed helmets strewn on a road and damaged vehicles.

No group has said it was behind the attack but a wave of bombings in Turkey this year has been carried out both by the PKK and so-called Islamic State (IS), says the BBC's Mark Lowen in Istanbul.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Mark Lowen reported on the Besiktas bombing some 90 minutes after the attack

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the explosions "aimed to maximise casualties".

But they came two hours after the end of the match between top teams Bursaspor at Besiktas at the Vodafone Arena.

Local media reported that fans had already dispersed. Bursaspor posted on Twitter that it knew of no injuries to its supporters.

Deadly attacks in Turkey this year

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Scene of explosion in Ankara's central Kizilay district on 13 March

20 August: Bomb attack on wedding party in Gaziantep kills at least 30 people, IS suspected

30 July: 35 Kurdish fighters who try to storm a military base are killed by the Turkish army

28 June: A gun and bomb attack on Ataturk airport in Istanbul kills 41 people, in an attack blamed on IS militants

13 March: 37 people are killed by Kurdish militants in a suicide car bombing in Ankara

17 February: 28 people die in an attack on a military convoy in Ankara

Image copyright Reuters Image caption The attack appears to have targeted riot police
At least 13 people are killed and 56 others are wounded in a car bomb attack on a bus carrying off-duty soldiers in Kayseri Province, central Turkey.