Two soldiers were dead and three more were injured in a bomb attack organized by terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) members in Derik district of southeastern province of Mardin on Wednesday.
Turkish media reported that a handmade bomb planted on a highway was detonated with a remote control while an armored police vehicle was passing by.
The injured soldiers were taken to Viranşehir State Hospital in province of Şanlıurfa for treatment. An operation was launched in the area to neutralize terrorists responsible for the attack.
The PKK is designated as a “terrorist organization” by the United States (US) and the European Union (EU), as well as Turkey. There have been repeated clashes between security forces and PKK members since a cease-fire between the government and the PKK’s jailed leader, Abdullah Öcalan, collapsed in July of last year.
Since the settlement process launched by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government in 2012 with the PKK to end the country’s long-standing Kurdish problem ended in July, nearly 200,000 locals in the Southeast have been forced to leave their homes due to fighting and curfews.
The authorities have been imposing curfews in towns and districts to flush PKK militants from urban areas in Turkey’s mostly Kurdish Southeast since then.