The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is behind auto bomb attacks that hit Turkey on June 7 and on June 8, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has said, pledging to continue a “relentless struggle” against the outlawed group.”PKK”. There was no immediate word of any casualties.
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Ambulances rushed to the scene and reinforcements from the security forces were being sent to the area from around Mardin province, the security sources said.
A auto bomb in Istanbul killed 11 people and wounded 36 others during morning rush hour Tuesday.
A vehicle bombing at a police headquarters near the border with Syria has injured several people, Turkish media reported.
Officials in Ankara say the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, a group linked to the PKK, carried out the attack, according to a report by pro-government columnist Abdulkadir Selvi in Hurriyet newspaper.
A new vehicle bomb attack rocked Turkey on Wednesday, just a day after a similar bombing took place in Istanbul. Three of the 36 wounded were in critical condition, he said. Seven police officers were killed.
“We shall continue our fight against terrorists”, Erdogan said.
Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım condemned the attack and said concrete barriers and other security measures in place at the police headquarters had prevented a greater loss of life. Wars in neighbouring Syria and Iraq have fostered a home-grown Islamic State network blamed for a series of suicide bombings, while militants from the largely Kurdish southeast have increasingly struck in cities further afield.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
“The murderer is the PKK terrorist organisation”, the recently installed prime minister said while visiting survivors in hospital, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
Gunfire could be heard on television footage as security forces clashed in street battles with armed militants.
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Last week, the military announced that it had ended a large-scale operation to flush out Kurdish militants from the nearby Syrian border town of Nusaybin, also in Mardin province.
