Eight Turkish Officers Killed In Kurdish Attack

Turkish officials say eight police officers were killed and nine wounded when a roadside mine exploded in southern Turkey.

Officials said the mine was detonated by suspected militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as a police bus was passing the Karliova district of Bingol.

The blast comes after suspected Kurdish separatists killed four Turkish soldiers in an attack on a military convoy near the border with Iran and Iraq on September 15.

Turkish officials in the southeastern province of Hakkari said forces had killed 123 Kurdish militants in the past 10 days in a major offensive against PKK bases.

The PKK, which has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization by Turkey and the United States, has been fighting since 1984 for an independent Kurdish state.

Some 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.


Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP