MARDIN, Turkey
A police officer has been injured in a bomb attack in Turkey’s southeastern Mardin province, close to the Syrian border, amid a day of violence in Turkey's east.
Mardin governor’s office said on Tuesday that members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) planted an explosive device on a bridge in the Nusaybin district and detonated it as a police car passed.
The injured policeman was taken to hospital in Nusaybin city for medical treatment.
Also on Tuesday, police officers came under fire in Sirnak provice by pro-PKK supporters who dug ditches and set up barricades ahead of a protest in the Cizre district.
A 54-year-old civilian, Besir Egitmis, was critically injured in the clashes.
In a separate incident in Diyarbakir province, police launched an operation against the Patriotic Revolutionist Youth Movement – a group linked to the PKK – detaining three suspects.
The police seized two home-made grenades, petrol bombs, firework launchers, 45 bottles for preparing Molotov cocktails plus five rounds of rifle ammunition.
In addition, security force sources said two PKK members on bicycles attacked Yuksekova police department building in eastern Hakkari province.
The militants attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and long-barreled guns but police have reported no casualties.
Hakkari also saw a mortar attack on the Turkish army in Daglica district. The Daglica Battalion was hit by heavy weapons and mortar shells which injured a 9-year-old girl whose home was struck.
The attacks come hours after two soldiers were killed in an assault on a military vehicle in Sirnak in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
