(From Reuters/AP)
Kurdish militants launched a car bomb attack on a police complex in the province of Diyarbakir in southeast Turkey overnight, killing six people and wounding 39, the provincial governor’s office said on Thursday.
It said Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants carried out the attack on a police station and police accommodation in the Cinar district of Diyarbakir around 11:30 pm (1830 ET).
Another police station was also attacked with rocket launchers in Midyat town, in the province of Mardin, in what appeared to be a simultaneous assault. No casualties were reported there.
The attack came two days after a suicide bomber detonated a bomb in Istanbul’s main tourist district, killing 10 Germans. Turkish officials say the bomber was affiliated with the Islamic State group.
Clashes between Turkey’s security forces and the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, reignited in July, shattering a fragile peace process.
Authorities have since imposed extended curfews in flashpoint neighborhoods and towns in the mainly Kurdish-populated southeast region of the country as the security forces battle Kurdish militants who are linked to the PKK.
Those militants have mounted barricades, dug trenches and set up explosives to keep authorities away. The operations have resulted in more than a hundred civilian casualties, and displaced thousands, human rights groups say.
The conflict between the government forces and the PKK has killed tens of thousands of people since 1984. The group is considered a terror organization by Turkey and its western allies.