Child killed in PKK bomb attack in southeastern Turkey

A Turkish child was killed on Sunday as militants of the banned Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) set off a bomb in southeastern Turkey, private Dogan news agency reported.

The blast took place on a road leading to a dam under construction in Silvan town of Diyarbakir province, leaving another child wounded, according to the report.

Also on Sunday, a Turkish police officer was killed and another seriously wounded when a group of PKK rebels attacked a police vehicle in Kayapinar town of Diyarbakir province, the report added.

Tensions escalated in both eastern and southeastern Turkey amid the Turkish military's ongoing cross-border bombing campaign against PKK hideouts in northern Iraq.

The operations were followed by several attacks against Turkish security forces by the PKK inside Turkey, killing over 60 soldiers and police officers.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, took up arms in 1984 in an attempt to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. More than 40,000 people have since been killed in conflicts involving the group.

Source: XINHUA