Two Turkish soldiers killed in PKK suicide attack in Agri (Ararat) province

Two Turkish soldiers killed in PKK suicide attack in Agri (Ararat) province –

AFP – Two Turkish soldiers were killed and at least two dozen other troops were wounded early Sunday in a suicide attack blamed on Kurdish militants, as Ankara kept up its air campaign against the rebels’ bases in northern Iraq.

The attack in the Dogubayazit district of the eastern Agri province is the first time Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants have been accused of staging a suicide attack in the current crisis, amid an escalating cycle of violence that appears to have no end in sight.

Ankara has launched a two-pronged “anti-terror” offensive against Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Syria and PKK militants based in northern Iraq after a wave of attacks inside Turkey.

But so far the bombardments have focused far more on the Kurdish rebels — with Turkish official media claiming that 260 suspected PKK members have been killed so far — and the militants have retaliated inside Turkey.

There is also growing controversy over possible civilian casualties in the Turkish bombings, and the local Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq on Saturday urged the PKK to spare civilians.

The suspected PKK suicide bomber drove a tractor laden with explosives up to the military station in the Dogubayazit district, the official Anatolia news agency reported, quoting the local governor’s office.

Two soldiers were killed and 24 were wounded.

The soldiers were deployed with the local Jandarma (Gendarmerie), a branch of the army that looks after internal security in Turkey.

In a separate incident also blamed on the PKK, one Turkish soldier was killed and four were wounded early Sunday when a mine exploded as their convoy was travelling on a road in the Midyat district of the Mardin province in southeastern Turkey, Anatolia said.

The PKK’s insurgency for greater rights and powers for Turkey’s Kurdish minority has claimed tens of thousands of lives since it began more than 30 years ago. The current fighting has left a 2013 ceasefire in tatters.

According to an AFP toll, at least 17 members of the security forces have now been killed in attacks blamed on the PKK since the fresh crisis erupted last week.

The attacks are the most severe in Turkey since the 2013 ceasefire, which raised hopes of finding a peace deal and sealing a historic reconciliation between the modern Turkish state with Kurds, by far its largest minority.