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Bombing kills 3 more Turkish soldiers

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Three Turkish soldiers have been killed in a powerful bomb explosion in the eastern province of Bingol. 

The Turkish army said in a statement on Saturday that the roadside bombing was carried out in the Karliova district of Bingol.

 

Three other soldiers were also killed in an exchange of fire with the militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) during the late hours of Friday in the southeastern province of Hakkari.

The army confirmed that six soldiers were also wounded in the Karliova bombing that targeted a military convoy. A gun fight reportedly ensued between militants and Turkish security forces after the bombing, which has been blamed on the PKK.

Over the past weeks, Turkey has been engaged in one of its biggest security operations in the southern border region. The Turkish military has been conducting offensives against alleged positions of Daesh terrorists in northern Syria as well as those of the PKK in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey.

Ankara started the security operations in the wake of the deadly July 20 bomb attack in the southern Turkish town of Suruc, an ethnically Kurdish town located close to the Kurdish town of Kobani on the other side of the border in Syria, where over 30 people died. The Turkish government blamed Daesh for the bombing. On July 22, the PKK claimed responsibility for the killing of two Turkish police officers, saying they were cooperating with Daesh.

Also on Friday, two Turkish police officers were injured in an ambush by unknown assailants in the Nusaybin district of the southeastern province of Mardin.

Ankara says over 35 soldiers have been killed in the conflict of the recent weeks.

Seeking self-rule, the PKK has been engaged in militancy in southeastern Turkey for decades. An unstable ceasefire with the government, which had been in place since 2013, was declared null by the militants following the Turkish airstrikes against the group.

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