He said that the three killed were all civilians while two of the 40 wounded were police. Since then, more than 600 Turkish security personnel and thousands of PKK militants have been killed, according to Anadolu.
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Twelve people were killed in a spate of bombings against Turkish security forces blamed on Kurdish rebels who appear to have ramped up their campaign of attacks in the aftermath of the failed coup.
First, village guard Müslüm Yaldız was killed, and a soldier wounded in clashes with PKK militants in the village of Nazar, Hurriyet Daily News reports.
A bomb-carrying vehicle exploded in front of the police station building, creating a hole in it and severely damaging the facility, according to local media.
“You don’t have to be fortune teller to see that the FETO is behind the latest PKK attacks in terms of sharing information and intelligence”, Erdogan said.
Dogan video footage showed a large plume of smoke rising from the area of the blast, the cause of which was not clear.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim flew to Elazig to condemn the blast.
Turkish officials blamed the attacks on the Kurdish Workers’ Party, whose commander recently threatened to launch a vehicle bombing campaign.
Hours earlier, three police officers died and more than 200 people were injured in a auto bombing outside police headquarters in the eastern city of Elazig.
On Thursday, authorities imposed a temporary blackout on media coverage of the bombing in Elazig, citing “public order and national security” concerns.
Authorities have arrested or suspended tens of thousands of police, troops, officials, judges and bureaucrats it says are linked to Gulen’s movement.
Erdogan on Thursday again called on U.S. President Barack Obama to extradite Gulen.
“I personally asked Obama to extradite Gulen a year ago”.
Turkey’s southeast has been hit by violence since a ceasefire with the PKK fell apart in July a year ago.
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The PKK has since carried out dozens of attacks on police and military posts in the largely Kurdish region in its fight for greater autonomy for Turkey’s 15 million Kurds.
