News / Turkey

Bomb blast hits Turkish military vehicle in Diyarbakir

Friday, 03 June 2016 12:42 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 03 June 2016 2:27 PM ]

The site of an explosion in the mainly-Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, Turkey, May 10, 2016 (AP)

A bomb explosion hit a Turkish military vehicle in Diyarbakir Friday, injuring eight soldiers.

Diyarbakir Provincial Governor’s Office said in a statement that members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) had planted the bomb on the road linking Diyarbakir to the city of Silvan, and set it off as the soldiers’ car passed by.

“Eight soldiers in the armored vehicle have been wounded. The wounded soldiers have been taken to hospital after they were given first aid treatment,” the statement said.

The PKK recently attacked a military vehicle in Nusaybin. A dozen police officers were injured. The militants detonated a roadside bomb as the military vehicle was traveling along a road in the area.

A shaky ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish government collapsed in July 2015, and attacks on Turkish security forces have soared ever since.

A PKK militant stands at a barricade as thousands of people flee from the historic district of Sur, the mainly-Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, Turkey, January 27, 2016. (AP)

Ankara has been engaged in a large-scale campaign against the PKK in its southern border region in the past few months. The Turkish military has also been conducting offensives against PKK positions in northern Iraq and Syria.

The operations began in the wake of a deadly July 2015 bombing in the southern Turkish town of Suruc. More than 30 people died in the attack, which the Turkish government blamed on the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

After the bombing, the PKK militants, who accuse Ankara of supporting Daesh, engaged in a series of supposed reprisal attacks against Turkish police and security forces, prompting the Turkish military operations.

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