Turkey’s air force attacked Kurdish forces camps in Iraq for a second night on Sunday, security sources said, in a campaign that could end the country’s peace process with the Kurdistan Workers Party.
Ankara, which called for a special NATO meeting on Tuesday to discuss its security concerns, said two soldiers were killed and four wounded in an earlier attack by PKK forces, AFP reported.
Long a reluctant member of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State, Turkey made a dramatic turnaround last week by granting the alliance access to its airbases and launching air raids against both the militants and PKK positions.
The relapse into serious conflict between Turkey and the PKK has raised doubts about the future of Ankara’s peace efforts with its own Kurdish opponents that started in 2012, after 28 years of bloodshed, but have recently stalled.
The overnight airstrikes on PKK targets in northern Iraq came a day after a car bomb and roadside explosives hit a passing military vehicle on a highway near Diyarbakir, the Turkish Army said.
Suspected Kurdish militants opened fire on the vehicle with rifle fire, it said. Two soldiers were killed and four were wounded.
Policemen Killed in Istanbul
The renewed conflict has sparked protests in parts of Istanbul as well as the southeast.
A Turkish policeman was killed on Sunday during clashes with protesters in the flashpoint Istanbul district of Gazi, the official Anatolia news agency reported.
Policeman Muhammet Fatih Sivri was shot in the chest from inside a building while he tried to make an arrest during clashes that raged all day, it said. He was rushed to hospital but died from his wounds.
