On Thursday, three more police officers were killed in another assault on the police headquarters in the eastern city of Elazig.
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Two cars loaded with explosives and a roadside blast targeting Turkey’s security forces left at least 14 people dead in a trio of attacks, officials said Thursday.
It was on Wednesday that the terror began when PKK launched their campaign of auto bombings following commander Cemil Bayik’s threat to increase attacks on police in Turkey.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim visited some of the injured in hospital.
CNN Turk footage showed much of the four-story building in ruins and a large plume of black smoke billowing into the sky while rescuers searched for survivors.
Authorities say the assaults were carried out by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has launched a campaign of auto bombings targeting police stations or roadside bomb attacks security force vehicles.
If Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels are responsible, as Turkish officials allege, it would be the first time their campaign has struck in the country’s east, which is not predominantly Kurdish.
“The (PKK) terror group has lost its chain of command”.
The latest in Turkey today is the third in a string of fatal attacks targeting law enforcement and military officials in less than 24 hours. The group has frequently carried out attacks on police stations in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast in recent months. Elazig lawmaker Metin Bulut of the ruling AK Party said by phone that 15 of the wounded were seriously hurt.
Two auto bombings – less than 12 hours apart – killed at least six people in total and injured over 200, officials said today (18 August), blaming the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Five soldiers and one village guard were killed and six soldiers were wounded on August 18 in a PKK attack in the Hizan district of the eastern province of Bitlis.
“The PKK resumed its long-running conflict against the Turkish military in July 2015, after more than two years of reconciliation talks broke down”.
Turkish rescue workers stand by the wreckage of a vehicle as a Turkish police officer inspects a destroyed auto in Elazig.
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Addressing a group of Islamic civil society members on Thursday, Erdogan said some 3,000 other Kurdish militants also have been detained, insisting that there has been no slackening in Turkey’s fight against the rebel group as it deals with the aftermath of the failed coup.
