3 police officers hurt in SE Turkey PKK bomb attack

By Ekrem Payan and Halil Ibrahim Sincar

MARDIN, Turkey

Three police officers were slightly injured in a bomb attack carried out by the PKK terrorist group in the southeastern city of Mardin on Saturday, a police source said.

The bomb exploded when an armored police vehicle was passing by a road in Derik district, the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media, said.

The wounded officers were then taken to Derik State Hospital. Security forces later launched an operation to nab the assailants, the source added.

Also, security forces found improvised explosive devices inside a municipality building in the southeastern city of Sirnak, the regional governor said on Saturday.

The governor said a security personnel was slightly injured while he disposed of the PKK-planted devices.

The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU -- resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July last year.

Since then, PKK terrorist attacks martyred more than 700 security personnel and also claimed the lives of many civilians, including women and children, while nearly 8,000 PKK terrorists were killed in army operations.