On Monday, nine people, including five police officers, were killed in separate attacks in Istanbul and in the south-eastern Sirnak province which were blamed on the PKK.
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The Turkish military ratcheted up pressure on Kurdish militants with a fresh round of air strikes in the southeast of the country on Tuesday as the insurgents claimed responsibility for the bombing of a police station in Istanbul.
Meanwhile, in Istanbul, a senior police officer in charge of the city’s bomb disposal department was killed in clashes that followed a pre-dawn suicide bombing.
The PKK accuses Turkey of using its anti-IS campaign to mask attacks on PKK individuals, a claim that the government denies.
Another Turkish soldier was killed overnight in a gun attack on a military post in Sirnak, Hurriyet Daily informs. Reportedly after the attack, a short clash broke out between Turkish security forces and PKK militants.
The statement came after Feridun H. Sinirlioglu, an undersecretary in the Turkish foreign ministry, said earlier Tuesday that the US and Turkey had reached an agreement to create a buffer zone along the Turkey-Syria border under the supervision of US-led coalition air forces. The DHKP-C and the PKK both have Marxist origins and have co-operated in the past, though there was no immediate indication of PKK involvement in this attack.
The United States and European Union called on Turkey last week to show restraint in its bombing of the Kurds, saying the country had a right to defend itself but that the response should be “proportionate”.
Monday’s attacks raised fresh concerns about security throughout Turkey in an escalating cycle of violence that has left a 2013 ceasefire agreed by the PKK in tatters.
Also in Istanbul two armed female militants opened fire on the US Consulate.
Two members of the police special forces patrol outside a police station after an attack in Istanbul, Turkey, yesterday.
On Sunday, the U.S. military announced that a detachment of six F-16 fighter jets and some 300 personnel have arrived at Turkey’s southern Incirlik Air Base to join the fight against IS militants. A bomb exploded as the man’s vehicle was passing, which was carrying special forces members to the Ovacik district.
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Turkish authorities vehemently deny allegations that Ankara has provided support to Islamic State and other extremist groups fighting to overthrow the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
