A total of seven people, including a police officer, have been killed in two separate attacks in southeastern provinces of Diyarbakir and Mardin in Turkey, transportation minister said on Wednesday.
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PKK detonated a roadside bomb in the town of Kızıltepe, in Mardin province, leaving one civilian and two police officers dead and 25 people injured at least.
In the region’s largest city, Diyarbakir, five civilians were killed in a auto bomb attack apparently targeting police, the sources said.
The blast killed three people and wounded at least 30 people – including five children.
Officials have blamed both attacks on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. Several ambulances were sent to the area.
The Turkish government further held the PKK responsible for the attack.
In the third similar incident earlier on Wednesday, five Turkish soldiers were killed and eight others injured after a homemade bomb exploded while a military convoy was passing in Sirnak Province’s Uludere district, situated close to the Iraqi border.
The PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the USA and the European Union – resumed its 30-year armed campaign against the Turkish state in July 2015.
The government has responded with military operations against the group, killing more than 7,000 militants in Turkey and northern Iraq, the agency said.
The raids, in 10 districts across Turkey’s largest city, targeted the “urban structure” of the PKK, Anadolu said. Human rights groups say hundreds of civilians have also died.
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Since then, more than 600 Turkish security forces and thousands of PKK militants have been killed, according to Turkey’s Anadolu Agency.
