A tractor carrying two tonnes of explosives was detonated by a suicide bomber at a military police station in Dogubeyazit district of eastern Agri province, close to Turkey’s border with Iran.
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The wounded soldiers were taken to a local hospital while the PKK militants staged an ambush to prevent reinforcements and medical teams from reaching the station.
The attack comes amid an escalation of violence between the government and the Kurdish rebels, with Turkey conducting nearly daily airstrikes at PKK bases in northern Iraq, and the rebels attacking security forces. Turkey’s decision to lump ISIS together with Kurdish forces who bitterly oppose the jihadist group has surprised some Western allies, but North Atlantic Treaty Organisation this week united behind the alliance’s only Muslim member.
Turkey’s worldwide calling said the charges could possibly be reviewed in a location interrogative in the authorities of Iraq’s Kurdistan.
Turkey has killed 260 Kurdish militants in a week-long air offensive on targets in northern Iraq, official media claimed Saturday, as regional Iraqi authorities said it was time the rebels pulled out with concerns growing over civilian casualties.
In what prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu has called a “synchronised fight against terror”, Ankara has granted access of its bases to the US-led coalition battling Daesh, however so far the majority of Turkey’s air bombardment has been on PKK targets.
Also on Sunday, pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chairman Selahattin Demirtas said that his party would send a delegation to the region to prepare a report into the incident.
Iraq’s oil pipeline to Turkey is expected to resume pumping on Tuesday, Turkish energy officials have told Reuters, after sabotage by Kurdish militants halted crude flow last week.
It’s unclear if the quid-pro-quo will be worth it. In any case, it will nearly certainly meant to work for Turkish president Recip Tayyip Erdogan’s political advantage.
This brings the number of Turkish security forces killed by the PKK since the fighting began about two weeks ago to 16. In contrast, police detained as many as 847 PKK suspects.
Turkey’s bombing of Islamic State positions in Syria this week was expected to be well received by China, which hopes Turkey will better stem the flow of militants across its borders, particularly Uighur separatists slipping out of Xinjiang and returning radicalized.
Kurdish activists said, however, that the Turkish airstrikes had destroyed at least six homes in the town of Zargel on Saturday, killing at least eight civilians and wounding 12.
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Turkey’s foreign ministry said it was working with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to investigate claims of civilian casualties in the village of Zargala on Friday.
