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3 killed, dozens wounded in 2 car bombings in Turkey

The bombing, blamed on the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), hit the neighborhood near Elazig Police Department at 9:20 local time (1220GMT). The bomb destroyed the four-story headquarters.

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Two policemen and a civilian were killed in an attack on Wednesday night in Van, another city in the east.

The attacks specifically targeted police and security personell..

The authorities rushed to point their fingers at the Kurdistan organization after their leader threatened increased attacks against the police.

Late on Wednesday, another vehicle bomb exploded on a police station in the eastern province of Van, near the Iranian border, killing three people, two police officers and one civilian, and wounded 73, the local governor’s office said in a statement.

He said that the three killed were all civilians while two of the 40 wounded were police.

Hours later, another attack took place in the city of Elazig, in front of another police station.

The PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the European Union – resumed its 30-year armed campaign against the Turkish state in July 2015.

The PKK, a designated terror group, has frequently carried out attacks on police stations in Turkey’s largely Kurdish south-east since past year.

Tens of thousands have been killed in the conflict.

Turkey’s Radio and Television Supreme Council issued a temporary ban on visual coverage of the attack after an order from the prime minister’s office, Anadolu reported.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

“No terror organization will force this nation to cow in submission”, Yildirim said. “They all serve the same goal”, Erdogan said, according to the agency.

The government has vowed to press on with the campaign to eradicate the PKK from eastern Turkey despite a purge in the army for those responsible for carrying out the coup.

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Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, has denied involvement in the coup attempt that left more than 270 people dead.

At least three police officers have been killed by a car bomb in Turkey