PKK Suicide Attack Kills Turkish Troops near Iraq Border

A PKK suicide attack has killed two Turkish security troops and wounded other 24 near the town of Dogubayazit in Agri province, close to Turkey’s border with Iran, the regional governor’s office says.

A tractor laden with explosives was driven at a military police station, reports by Turkish media say.

Since July 24, Turkey has carried out hundreds of air raids on PKK bases on both sides of the Iraq-Turkey border.

The Turkish state news agency, Anadolu, said that the attack happened at around 03:00 local time.

It said that the tractor was carrying two tons of explosives that were detonated by a suicide bomber.

Images in the Turkish press showed a badly-damaged building with the roof destroyed.

The regional governor did not say how the PKK had been identified as the group behind the blast. The PKK has not commented.

AFP said it would be the first time the Kurdish militants were accused of deploying a suicide bomber during recent clashes.

Turkey’s official news agency says about 260 Kurdish fighters have been killed in strikes in northern Iraq and Turkey since July 24. It has also targeted positions held by the Islamic State group, known as ISIS.

Further Turkish air raids were reported early on Saturday, this time in the Rawanduz area east of Erbil, capital of Iraq’s Kurdish region.

At least six people were killed and several more wounded in the town of Zarkel, local officials said. They reportedly included at least two women.

Turkey considers both the PKK and ISIS terrorist organizations.

The PKK was established in 1978 and called for an independent state within Turkey – a country that now has 15 million Kurds.

In 1984, the PKK began an armed struggle.

Since then, more than 40,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced, but in 2012, the government and PKK began peace talks and the following year a ceasefire was agreed.