Roadside bomb kills two Turkish soldiers

Smoke rises from burning tires next to a police vehicle as Kurdish demonstrators clash with Turkish police during a rally outlawed by state authorities to demand the release of jailed rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan , on 14 July 2012, in Diyarbakir. (Photo: AFP - STR)

Published Friday, July 27, 2012

An official says suspected Kurdish rebels have detonated a roadside bomb, killing two soldiers in the country's southeast.

Mustafa Toprak, the governor of Diyarbakir province, told the state-run Anadolu agency the remotely controlled bomb was hidden in a culvert on a road in the town of Lice and was detonated as a military vehicle passed by.

Toprak says a soldier and a civilian were also wounded in Friday's explosion.

The attack comes a day after Turkey said it had killed 15 Kurdish rebels in the country's southeast, near the Iraqi frontier.

Clashes between the armed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and Turkey have increased this year, with fears that the conflict could spread into Syria's predominantly northeastern corner.

The PKK are fighting for autonomy in Turkey's southeast, with the clashes already souring relations with Iraq, as Turkey frequently launches air raids on northern Iraqi territory in a bid to flush out Kurdish rebels.

Turkey rebuffed Iraqi warnings last week against continued Turkish violations of Iraqi sovereignty.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also warned Ankara could intervene militarily in Syria's northeast if Kurdish rebels set up base there.

The conflict between the rebels and Turkey has killed tens of thousands of people since 1984.

(Al-Akhbar, AP)