A landmine explosion in southeastern Turkey has claimed the lives of four police officers and seriously wounded another.
The explosion took place in the Silopi district of Sırnak province on Monday, Turkey’s Today’s Zaman newspaper reported, noting that the device is “suspected to have been planted by Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)” members. Report Presstv
Earlier in the day, two assailants opened fire at the US Consulate building in the Turkish city of Istanbul, causing a gunfight with the police. No one was hurt in the attack.
Ankara has blamed the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), an outlawed Marxist–Leninist party, for the attack.
Also on Monday, at least five police officers and two civilians were injured in a bomb attack on a police station in Istanbul.
Last month, a bomber carried out an attack in the southeastern Turkish province of Sanlıurfa, killing over 30 activists and injuring more than 100 people. Violence has flared up between Turkey’s security forces and the PKK since the bombing, although, it was blamed on the Daesh (ISIL) Takfiri terrorist group.
Following the bombing, Ankara started waging attacks against alleged Daesh targets in Syria and the PKK in northern Iraq.
The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s. The conflict has left tens of thousands of people dead.