The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Sunday denied any involvement in the deadly blast that killed five people at a seaside resort in western Turkey.
In a statement carried by a pro-Kurdish news agency, the PKK, considered a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States, also said it had no ties to the Kurdish group that claimed a bomb attack in another resort last week and threatened to continue targeting the tourism industry.

Although the PKK, which has attacked civilians in the past, was never officially accused, Turkish officials and the media strongly suspected it of conducting Saturday’s attack on a minibus in Kusadasi that killed five people, including two foreign tourists, and left 13 wounded.

“The allegations are completely untrue and baseless ... We have nothing to do with the act at Kusadasi,” said a PKK statement carried on the Internet site of the MHA news agency, which is close to the rebels.

“We have no links with organizations such as TAK either,” the statement said, using the Kurdish acronym of the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons.

The TAK first emerged last August, weeks after the PKK called off a five-year unilateral truce with Ankara, when it claimed responsibility for the bombing of two hotels in Istanbul, in which two people were killed.

In April, it took the blame for another blast at Kusadasi, in which one policeman died and four others were wounded.