Six killed, 220 wounded in eastern Turkey car bombings

DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY // At least three people were killed and more than 50 were wounded in a car-bomb attack on a police station in the eastern Turkish city of Elazig on Thursday, security sources said, hours after a similar bombing killed three people elsewhere in the region.

Footage showed a large plume of smoke rising from the area in the immediate aftermath of the blast and extensive damage to the facade of the police station.

Turkey’s Dogan news agency said the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group was behind the attack. The group has frequently carried out attacks on police stations in Turkey’s largely Kurdish south-east in recent months.

On Wednesday, three people were killed and 40 were wounded when a car bomb exploded near a police station in the eastern province of Van near the Iranian border on Wednesday, state broadcaster TRT said, citing the local governor.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for that attack.

The mainly Kurdish south-east has been scorched by violence since a 30-month ceasefire between the state and the PKK collapsed in July last year.

The PKK is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union.

* Reuters