Car bomb targets Turkish military base in southeast Turkey

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – A car bomb on Sunday targeted a Turkish military base in the district of Semdinli (Shemzinan), Hakkari (Colemerg) Province, southeast of Turkey, security said.

Following the explosion, ambulances rushed to the scene to transfer the wounded to nearby hospitals.

Eight soldiers were killed and seven people, including civilians, were injured, security sources said.

A Kurdistan24 reporter stated the car bomb targeted the Durak gendarmerie station, located 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the town of Shemzinan.

So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Turkeys state-run media blamed the violence on members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The PKK is labeled a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union, and the United States.

On Sep. 30, the Turkish army clashed with PKK in a village located in the Urdu Province of the Black Sea region, northern Turkey.

According to the Turkish military, six PKK fighters were killed in the clashes.

Semdinli is a mountainous area located near the border of Iraq and Iran in the Province of Colemerg.

It is one of the locations where the PKK fighters are active and waged decades of insurgency against the Turkish government.

Violence between PKK guerrillas and Turkish forces in Eastern Turkey (Bakur) among the Kurds has risen especially in the aftermath of the July 15 failed coup attempt.

A two-year held ceasefire and peace negotiations mediated by the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) between the PKK and the Turkish Government collapsed in August 2015.

The collapse lead to months-long clashes in a dozen Kurdish cities between the two sides that left hundreds, including civilians, dead.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany