Bomb in SE Turkey injures 11 children, 6 adults

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - A bomb exploded beside a minibus carrying soldiers' children home from school on Wednesday in a town in southeast Turkey, injuring 17 people including 11 children, a local security chief said.

The bomb, in Hakkari in the mainly Kurdish southeast, is part of an escalation of violence in the region, where soldiers have also stepped up operations against the outlawed guerrilla group, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Yasar Agdere, Hakkari's security chief, said none of the injured -- including 5 soldiers and a passerby -- were in a serious condition.

"The investigation continues, we still do not know what kind of bomb it was," he told reporters.

The PKK launched a campaign for an independent homeland in 1984 and Ankara, which considers it a terrorist organization, blames it for more than 30,000 deaths since then.

The increase in violence in the southeast has coincided with a series of bomb attacks in Istanbul, and Turkey said last month it was sending reinforcements to the southeast to deal with expected incursions from northern Iraq, where it says thousands of rebels are based.