Kurdish rebels attack Turkish military vehicle; 2 killed

Turkish security officials said that the PKK members planted an explosive device on the side of a road near the village of Araköy in Şırnak, “and detonated it when a Turkish armored vehicle approached the location”.

Turkish jets have also carried out strikes on PKK targets in northern Iraq.

Also on Monday, the PKK members opened fire at a military hospital in the eastern province of Bitlis, with no casualties reported.

Violence has flared between Turkish troops and PKK fighters after 32 pro-Kurdish activists were killed last month in a town close to the Syrian border.

The PKK, which has thus far claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people, is blacklisted as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

The Turkish Energy minister said the PKK had sabotaged the Shah Deniz pipeline, carrying natural gas from Azerbaijan, days after attacking an oil pipeline pumping crude to Turkey from Iraq.

After some media outlets claimed that Turkish military airstrikes killed civilians in northern Iraq, Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that Turkey would launch an investigation into the incident.

The move against IS was widely welcomed as part of worldwide efforts to counter the jihadists, but the attacks on the PKK raised wide concerns Turkey was using IS as a cover for a push against the Kurds, its real target.

The deaths bring the number of Turkish security forces killed by the PKK since July 20 to at least 18, the worst bloodshed since the group and the government agreed a ceasefire in 2013.

Ankara is waging a two-pronged cross-border “anti-terror” bombing campaign against Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria and PKK rebels in northern Iraq.