Four soldiers were killed and three others were injured when their armored military vehicle was attacked in the Savur district of Mardin on Friday while a police officer was killed in Şırnak in a separate attack in Şırnak.
In Mardin, terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants remotely exploded explosives they had planted during the passage of the soldiers, news reports said.
Also in Şırnak, a police officer was killed during anti-PKK operations on Friday.
A settlement process launched by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government in late 2012 to end Turkey’s long-standing terrorism problem collapsed following a two-year-cease-fire last July, triggering the worst violence in Turkey’s southeast since 1990s. Hundreds of civilians, security forces’ members as well as PKK terrorists have been killed in the region in the renewed conflict.
The PKK is designated as a terrorist group by Ankara, Washington and Brussels. At least 40,000 people have been killed in clashes between Turkish forces and PKK terrorists since 1984.