Eighteen people were killed yesterday when a van packed with five tonnes of explosives blew up in Turkey’s restive southeast in an attack blamed on Kurdish militants, the prime minister said.
The bombing, which killed 10 soldiers and eight civilians, was one of deadliest attacks on Turkish security forces since the attempted coup of July 15 when a rogue military faction tried to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“The attack was perpetrated by a suicide bomber who detonated a van (packed) with five tonnes of explosives,” Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told a news conference in Istanbul.
The attack targeted a security post in Hakkari province as security forces were searching vehicles in Semdinli district, the official news agency Anadolu said.
In a statement, the Hakkari governor said that a vehicle refused to stop as it approached a checkpoint, resulting in soldiers responding with gunfire.
Militants then also started shooting, the governor’s office said, quoted by Dogan news agency.
Another 27 people were injured in the blast caused by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Erdogan said in a written statement.
Anadolu reported at least 16 of those were civilians.
Soon after the attack, which Anadolu said left a 7m (22’) deep hole in the road, the military confirmed it had begun a large-scale air operation which the governor’s office said was launched to “neutralise” PKK militants.
The governor said commando units on the ground were continuing to search for PKK fighters.
Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus described yesterday’s attack as an “atrocious” and “heinous terrorist attack”, vowing on Twitter that Turkey would never surrender to militant groups.
Over the past two months, the military says it has killed a total of 387 PKK militants in Hakkari province, CNN-Turk reported.
The PKK has waged a 32-year insurgency against the Turkish state, which has left nearly 40,000 dead since 1984.
The group is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the European Union.
Since the collapse of a two-and-a-half-year ceasefire in July 2015, more than 600 security forces and 7,000 PKK militants have been killed, according to Anadolu.
Over the past 15 months, attacks on the Turkish security forces have continued on an almost daily basis as the government has pressed military operations against the PKK to rid urban areas of fighters.
Hakkari is a flashpoint in the renewed conflict.
On Saturday the Turkish armed forces said it “neutralised” eight PKK militants in Cukurcu district after clashes with the group, Anadolu reported.
Yildirim vowed that Turkey would continue with determination its “fight against the separatist terrorist organisation (PKK) ... and all kinds of terrorist organisations” including militants from the Islamic State (IS) group.
Meanwhile, Erdogan promised: “The state with all its institutions, hand in hand with the people, is determined to stop the actions of the separatist terrorist organisation (PKK).”
The bombing comes a day after two suspects believed to have been preparing a car bomb attack blew themselves up on the outskirts of Ankara when police ordered them to surrender.
Turkish officials said they believed the pair were linked to the PKK.
The attack also took place a day before the year anniversary of the bloodiest attack in Turkey’s modern history when 103 people were killed and more than 500 wounded in twin suicide bombings targeting a pro-Kurdish peace rally in the capital, Ankara.
That attack was blamed on the IS group.