A car bomb struck a military vehicle in southeast Turkey, killing two soldiers and wounding four others in an attack blamed on Kurdish forces, authorities said on Sunday, a day after Turkey launched airstrikes against Kurds in northern Iraq.
The car bomb exploded late Saturday on a road in the town of Lice as a vehicle carrying military police officers was traveling to intervene against Kurds who had blocked a main intersection and set cars on fire, said the governor's office in Diyarbakir, a mainly Kurdish province, AP reported.
The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, said the airstrikes likely spelled the end of a ceasefire announced in 2013.
Turkey has simultaneously bombed Islamic State positions near the Turkish border in Syria and carried out widespread operations against suspected Kurdish and IS militants and other outlawed groups inside Turkey. Hundreds of people have been detained.
The private Dogan news agency said Turkish artillery based near the southeastern border town of Semdinli shelled PKK targets across the frontier in northern Iraq for three hours early Sunday. There was no official confirmation of the report.
The military said the PKK also detonated a roadside bomb and fired on the troops in the attack it called a "treacherously pre-planned" ambush. The military statement said a large-scale operation was underway to capture the attackers.
Assailants also opened fire at police stations in the southeastern cities of Diyarbakir, Siirt and Mardin, Turkish media reported. No one was injured in the attacks.
On Saturday, Turkish fighter jets struck Kurdish positions across the border in northern Iraq, its first such strikes since the peace process with the Kurds was launched in 2012. A ceasefire was announced the following year.
