Soldier martyred in eastern Turkey bomb attack

BINGOL, Turkey

Four soldiers were martyred in a PKK attack in southeastern Turkey on Wednesday, following an earlier death caused by a roadside bomb, a security source said.

The first incident in Bingol province saw a soldier martyred by a bomb that was detonated during a counter-terrorism operation around the village of Ortacanak, where two members of the counter-terrorism village guard militia were martyred in a PKK attack Tuesday.

The same source, speaking on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media, said four soldiers were later martyred and two injured in a clash with PKK terrorists on the Diyarbakir-Bingol highway at Kiralan, a village in north Diyarbakir province.

The two injured soldiers are still being treated at Diyarbakir Military Hospital, the source said.

A hunt for the perpetrators, backed by air support, in both attacks was launched.

The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization also by the U.S. and EU -- resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July last year, since when more than 600 security personnel have been martyred and around 7,000 PKK terrorists killed.

Reporting by Abdullah Celik, Gani Cihan Eser and Hasan Namli : Writing by Emin Avundukluoglu