Five Civilians Killed In Terrorist Attack In Southeastern Turkey - Authorities

Five civilians have been killed in an attack carried out by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is designated as a terrorist organization, in the southeastern Turkish province of Diyarbakir, provincial authorities said on Wednesday

ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th April, 2020) Five civilians have been killed in an attack carried out by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is designated as a terrorist organization, in the southeastern Turkish province of Diyarbakir, provincial authorities said on Wednesday.

"Today at 06:30 a.m. [03:30 GMT] in the Kulp district, five residents who were traveling by car to the forest to harvest firewood were killed as a result of a blast of an improvised explosive device planted by members of the PKK terrorist organization. Our security forces launched an operation to identify and capture the perpetrators of the attack," the authorities said in a statement.

The Turkish government has been fighting the PKK, which seeks to establish a Kurdish autonomy, since the early 1980s. Along with combating the group in Turkey, Ankara also often conducts cross-border operations targeting Kurds in Iraq and Syria. Though the sides signed a ceasefire agreement between in 2013, the armed conflict resumed two years later in the wake of several terror attacks allegedly committed by PKK militants.