Auto bomb attack in Turkey’s southeast kills 1, wounds 2

Southeast Turkey has become the scene of regular clashes between security forces and fighters linked to the PKK, which wants greater autonomy and rights for Turkey’s Kurdish population.

Six Turkish soldiers were killed in separate PKK terrorist attacks in two southeastern provinces, security sources said on Friday.

New legislation, which will require military or parliamentary permission to indict soldiers, will be retroactively applied, to cover all operations coordinated over the previous year.

Erdogan said 7,500 PKK fighters have been “neutralized” and nearly 500 soldiers and police officers killed. Military court jurisdiction has been expanded as well. Four soldiers were killed when an improvised explosive device detonated in Hakkari province, near the Iraqi border, it said on its website.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government protocol, said initial reports indicated a vehicle bomb was detonated near a gendarme outpost in Omerli, a town in Mardin Province.

Ankara has been engaged in a large-scale campaign against the PKK in its southern border region in the past few months.

The operations began in the wake of a deadly July 2015 bombing in the southern Turkish town of Suruc.

The conflict between Turkey and the PKK, which demands the creation of an independent Kurdish state, has continued for over 25 years and has claimed more than 40,000 lives.

Security forces arrested a PKK militant on Thursday in the western province of Isparta. One person was also wounded.