Three police officers were killed after the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) opened fire on a police car in the southeast near the border with Iraq, security sources said, the latest in a string of clashes in the mainly Kurdish region.
The southeast has been rocked by a spate of clashes with insurgents that has left hundreds dead since a two-year-old ceasefire between the Turkish state and PKK militants broke down in July.
Security sources said a wide scale operation against the PKK militants started after the attack late on Tuesday, and one police officer was being treated for his wounds.
Also on Tuesday, one Turkish soldier was killed and 20 others were injured in two separate attacks in the region.
Areas of the southeast have been intermittently subject to round-the-clock curfews in response to the conflict. Security sources said six people had died in clashes in the town of Silvan in Diyarbakır province since a curfew was imposed there eight days ago.
Last Thursday, the PKK ended a month-old ceasefire it had declared before the Nov. 1 election. That vote was won by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who subsequently vowed to fight the PKK until all fighters were “liquidated”.