Two soldiers killed in attack in Turkey

By : AFP

Date: 12 August 2017 5:42pm WAT

Turkish special force soldiers stand guard at the courthouse on December 27, 2016 at silivri district in Istanbul. Almost 30 Turkish police will go on trial in Istanbul on December 27, 2016 charged with involvement in the July 15 coup bid, the city's first trial of alleged putschists. With indictments prepared against over 1,200 people, and some 41,000 under arrest in total, the trials following the failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are set to be the most far-reaching legal process in Turkish history. / AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE

An improvised bomb attack on a military vehicle killed two soldiers in southeast Turkey on Saturday, with state media blaming Kurdish separatists.

The blast came in the province of Batman, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency, which said the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was behind the attack.

Turkey was already in mourning on Saturday for a 15-year-old killed by PKK militants on Friday in the northeastern city of Trabzon.

Kurdish-dominated southeast Turkey has been hit by near-daily violence since the conflict between the PKK and the government flared up in 2015, ending a fragile ceasefire.

The PKK, which has waged an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984, is classed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.