Local media reported that the landmine exploded while an armored police vehicle was passing by the Başak neighborhood in Şırnak’s Silopi district where a police and three PKK militants had been killed on last Friday.
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At least ten others were injured in the blast of Sultanbeyli, according to the Dogan news agency.
The DHKP-C, whose members are among those detained in recent weeks, claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at the US embassy in Ankara in 2013 which killed a Turkish security guard. Police officers Hamdi Ulaş, Kamuran Bilin and Hıdır Tamboğa were killed, while seven others, including two police officers, were injured in the clashes.
One of the assailants, a woman, was later captured at a nearby building and hospitalized.
Reuters could not immediately confirm the reports.
In Washington, State Department Spokesman John Kirby said U.S. officials were working with Turkish authorities to investigate the incident.
The government has also vowed to begin strikes against IS jihadists in Syria alongside US forces who have now started arriving to use the well-located Incirlik Turkish air base in the south of the country.
The consulate said in a tweet that it was closed until further notice.
So far, the operation has focused largely on Kurdish rebels.
Violence between the security forces and suspected militants intensified in the mainly Kurdish southeast on Monday. The unknown assailants later fired upon police inspecting the bomb explosion, sparking a second gunfight with the police that killed a police inspection team member and two of the assailants.
A soldier was also killed when Kurdish militants opened fire on a military helicopter in a separate attack in Sirnak, the military said in a statement. “We’ve come here to take revenge for Suruc [attack]”. Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency, quoting unnamed police sources, said she has been identified as a member of a banned leftist group. Zubeyir Aydar of the Kurdistan Communities Union, who organized the march, accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of breaking a truce with the Kurds that had held since 2013. Erdogan said last month the process had become impossible, although neither side has so far declared the negotiations definitively over.
The PKK is designated as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the EU and the United States but Ankara’s Western allies have urged it to show restraint in the onslaught.
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Turkey’s airstrikes against Kurdish separatists has drawn global condemnation, with about 5,000 people gathering in the German city of Cologne to protest against the ongoing air raids in northern Iraq.
