Deadly blasts hit four cities in Turkey
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Kurdistan24) – A wave of separate attacks and explosions hit three cities in Turkey’s southern areas, and a northwestern city, claiming the lives of several civilians and security elements and wounding dozens.
A Kurdistan24 reporter said, in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, a car bomb attack in the Dicle district killed one Turkish soldier and wounded dozens.
“A bomb-laden car targeting a police station detonated at the entrance of the Dicle district, killing one soldier and injuring 23 others, including children,” the Kurdistan24 reporter said, citing security sources.
The injured were transported to Diyarbakir Military Hospital with three in critical condition.
Turkish security forces accused the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its military wing known as HPG, but no party has so far claimed the responsibility.
After the explosion, an armed clash erupted between the Turkish security forces supported by air operations and a group of militants.
Additionally, responding to a Turkish military operation in the Kurdish city of Nusaybin, Kurdish fighters launched an armed attack, killing three Turkish soldiers and wounding 14 others on Sunday.
“Civil Defense Units YPS and YPS-JIN have conducted a rocket action, which left at least three special operations members dead and 14 others wounded,” said Netherlands-based Kurdish Firat News Agency (ANF), a close associate of HPG.
[Turkish soldiers patrol in Sur district, which is partially under curfew, in the Kurdish-dominated southeastern city of Diyarbakir, Turkey, Feb. 26, 2016. (Photo: Reuters)]
In the southern city of Gaziantep, just 65 km (40 miles) from the Syrian border, a suicide car bomb attack, allegedly by the Islamic State (IS), killed two Turkish police officers and wounded 22 others, including civilians.
Reuters reported on Sunday that Turkish police raided the home of a suspected IS insurgent believed to be responsible for the attack.
“The father of a suspect who is believed to have carried out the attack has been detained. We have records of the suspect's links with Islamic State," a security source told Reuters on Sunday.
In the northwestern Turkish city of Bursa, a female suicide bomber wounded eight people on Wednesday when she blew herself up near an Ottoman-era mosque in the city.
On Sunday, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) claimed responsibility for the suicide attack.
“TAK announced in a written statement that the action was carried out by Eser Chali…to take revenge on the ‘fascist Turkish state's savage attacks and massacres against the Kurdish people,’” ANF reported, citing the TAK statement.
Turkey has been facing growing adverse reaction from the conflict in Syria since the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War in 2011. Additionally, there has been a renewed conflict with Kurdish fighters since a ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish government collapsed last July.
This year, a series of suicide bombings hit Turkey, including two in its largest city Istanbul, blamed on IS, and two in the capital Ankara which were claimed by Kurdish groups.
Reporting by Hisham Arafat
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany and Ava Homa