At least seven people were killed and dozens injured in two bomb blasts in southern Turkey on Wednesday, a senior official said.
Advertisement
The attacks, which came on the heels of a failed military coup that threatened to topple Turkey’s government, were aimed at police and soldiers in the largely Kurdish region.
Meanwhile, police in Istanbul conducted a series of raids across the city, including a branch of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish political party, detaining 17 suspected Kurdish militants, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
According to the Dogan news agency, the earlier attack on Turkish military personnel was carried out with improvised explosives and rockets fired from across the Iraq border. Both attacks were reportedly believed to be the work of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Earlier on Wednesday, five Turkish soldiers were killed in an attack blamed on PKK militants in Uludere in the south-eastern Sirnak province close to the Iraqi border. The attack targeted a bus carrying police officers, the sources said.
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.
Clashes between the PKK and Turkey’s security forces resumed past year after a tenuous cease-fire collapsed and the PKK has frequently targeted police or military with roadside explosives or vehicle bombs. Human rights groups say hundreds of civilians have also died.
It said the detainees were accused of “terror group membership”, recruitment and staging illegal protests.
Advertisement
The PKK, designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984.
