Istanbul: At least eight people were killed and dozens injured in two bomb blasts in southern Turkey on Wednesday, a senior official said.
One of the explosions targeted a police bus outside Mardin State Hospital in the town of Kiziltepe, on the Turkish border with Syria, CNN reported. The blast killed three people and wounded at least 30 people.
Simultaneously, a separate car bomb on a bridge in the nearby city of Diyarbakir killed five people and injured at least 13, added the official.
Earlier, officials said four soldiers had been killed and nine wounded when PKK militants opened fire with rockets and long-range weapons from across the Iraqi border into Turkey’s Sirnak province.
In July three people, including one police officer, were killed in a car bomb attack on a police station in the volatile Mardin province. Turkish officials blamed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) for the assault.
Southeast Turkey is a predominantly Kurdish populated area, where Ankara is conducting an operation against the PKK, which it considers a terrorist organization. However, the crackdown on the region saw claims of large-scale abuse by government forces against the civilian population.
Initial assessments indicate Kurdish militants were behind both attacks, the official said.
