Turkish broadcaster says Explosion in southeast Turkey kills two soldiers

An improvised explosive device has gone off in the southeastern Turkish province of Hakkari, killing two military forces.

Turkish-language CNN Turk television said the bomb was detonated on Monday, as a Turkish army truck was driving past it near the Iraqi border.

No group or individual has so far claimed responsibility for the blast, but Ankara blames such assaults mostly on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) or Daesh terrorists.

Earlier this month, a bomb explosion in the same province left four soldiers dead and four others wounded.

Over the past few years, Turkey has seen a rise in terror attacks targeting civilians and security forces.

Turkey has banned the PKK, which has been calling for an autonomous Kurdish region since 1984, as a terrorist organization. Clashes between Turkish forces and the militants have left more than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, dead over the past three decades.

A shaky ceasefire between Ankara and the PKK that had stood since 2013 was declared null and void by the militants in 2015 in the wake of a large-scale Turkish military campaign against the group. Attacks on Turkish security forces have soared ever since.

Turkish air force has been carrying out operations against the PKK positions in the country’s troubled southeastern border region as well as in northern Iraq and neighboring Syria.