ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) detonated a car bomb near a police checkpoint in southeast Turkey Sunday, which resulted in the deaths of two police officers and the wounding of five others, Reuters reported.
The wounded were sent to Sirnak Provincial Hospital in Sirnak province, according to the Today’s Zaman Turkish newspaper.
Turkish security forces at a nearby base in Sirnak province subsequently shelled a mountainous area PKK fighters had fled to after the attack, security sources told Reuters.
Two militants were killed in the operation, which was supported by Cobra gunships. Helicopters then landed commandos in the area where the PKK fighters were, and intermittent clashes ensued.
Meanwhile, one police officer was killed and another injured in the southeastern Turkish province of Diyarbakir in another attack by the PKK on Sunday.
According to the provincial governor’s office, a curfew was declared on Sunday in the center of Diyarbakir, the largest city in the Kurdish southeast.
Turkey and the PKK have been locked in a three-decade conflict in which some 40,000 people have been killed.
The conflict reignited in late June after the PKK claimed responsibility for the killing of two Turkish policemen in late July.
The resumption of hostilities ended a ceasefire signed between the PKK and Ankara in 2013.
