An explosion occurred early on Friday as a police vehicle was passing by on the Diyarbakır (Amed)-Mardin (Mêrdîn) highway in southeastern Turkey.
The Diyarbakır governor’s office announced that eight police officers and one civilian were injured when a parked vehicle exploded.
Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said five people were detained in connection with the attack against the police vehicle within an hour of the incident.
“Of course, we expect such acts from the terrorist organisation, we are already preventing many of them,” Soylu said, pinning the attack on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
“Our struggle will continue, the east and southeast will be in peace. The PKK will be destroyed,” he said.
Turkey has been conducting airstrikes against the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) and Kurdish forces in Iraqi Kurdistan since 19 November, accusing Syrian Kurdish groups of terrorism by proximity to the PKK.
Turkey has pointed to Kurdish groups regarding a bombing in Istanbul on 13 November, which killed six civilians. Several Kurdish groups have come out with statements condemning the attack and denying all involvement, while also accusing Turkey of having orchestrated what they called a terrorist act to legitimise Ankara’s cross-border military operations.
Ankara believes its recent military operations in northern Syria and Iraq to be within the scope of the right to self-defence, under Article 51 of the United Nations Convention. Meanwhile, international law experts and human rights groups maintain that Turkey is in violation of international law in its cross-border wars.
