One police officer, two civilians were killed and five police officers, 15 civilians were wounded in Kızıltepe district of Mardin”.
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The official could not immediately confirm media reports that said two other people were killed in a separate, simultaneous attack that also targeted a police bus in the town of Kiziltepe.
Clashes between the PKK and Turkey’s security forces resumed previous year after a tenuous cease-fire collapsed.
Terrorist organization PKK also carried out a separate attack in Sur district of southeastern Diyarbakir province on Wednesday, targeting another police vehicle.
Security sources have blamed the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) for the coordinated attacks on police targets.
Initial assessments indicate Kurdish militants were behind both attacks, the official said.
The suspects, accused of having links to the PKK or other pro-Kurdish groups, were charged with “being a member of a terrorist organisation, recruiting members for a terrorist organisation and organising illegal demonstrations”, the state-funded Anadolu Agency reported.
Over 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK first took up arms in 1984. It is proscribed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the US. Activists claim innocent civilians have also been killed in the military offensives.
The private Dogan news agency said that insurgents attacked military vehicles with improvised explosives and with rockets fired from inside northern Iraq.
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Since then, almost 600 security personnel, including troops, police officers and village guards and more than 5,000 PKK terrorists have been killed in operations across Turkey and northern Iraq.
