A auto bomb rocked the eastern Turkish city of Van today, leaving 19 people including two police officers wounded, a ruling party lawmaker said.
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An explosion rocked the eastern Turkish city of Van today, leaving several people wounded, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
A bomb-laden vehicle exploded at 10.50 a.m. local time (0750GMT) near a police station in front of the Justice and Development (AK) Party building, injuring 48 people.
Local television footage showed smoke billowing from a building and firefighters battling flames.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Turkey’s battle against the PKK resumed with a new intensity after a ceasefire collapsed a year ago and with attempts by Kurdish groups in Syria’s war to carve out an autonomous Kurdish enclave on Turkey’s border.
Erdogan said in a videotaped message marking the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha that Turkey has a “primary duty” to its people to destroy IS and prevent it from staging attacks in Turkey.
Turkey has also launched an operation inside Syria to remove Islamic State (IS) group militants as well as Syrian Kurdish militia from its frontier.
The PKK is recognised as a terrorist organisation by the European Union, the U.S., and Turkey.
A three-decade conflict between the Turkish state and Kurdish militants could be resolved within six months if talks were to be revived, the jailed rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan said, according to remarks by his brother on Monday, September 12, Reuters reports.
Four towns in Van province were affected by the removals. “You, as mayors and municipal councils, can not stand up and support terrorist organizations”.
President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Turkey had evidence that the mayors had sent support to Kurdish militants, and that they should have been stripped of their roles sooner.
“You do not have such an authority”, he said.
Concerns had been raised since the 15 July coup attempt in Turkey over the welfare of the Kurdish leader.
Thousands of people have died since a ceasefire and peace talks between the PKK and Turkish government broke down in July 2015. Last week, the government suspended more than 11,000 teachers accused of links to the PKK, mainly across Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast.
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The PKK have fought since 1984 for an autonomous Kurdistan in southeastern Turkey in what is historically Assyrian and Armenian land.
