Istanbul, Jan 14: At least 22 people were wounded on Thursday in a bomb attack by Kurdish rebels on a police station in Turkey’s troubled southeast, reports said.
A car bomb attack carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) caused heavy damage to outer walls of the police station in the town of Cinar in the province of Diyarbakir, the Dogan news agency reported.
The rebels then followed up the car bomb with rocket attacks and long-range gunfire, it added. Adjacent housing for police officers was also hit, wounding the wives of police and several children, Dogan said. At least 22 people were wounded in total, it said.
The PKK launched a formal insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984, initially fighting for Kurdish independence although it now presses more for greater autonomy and rights for the country’s largest ethnic minority. The conflict has left tens of thousands dead.
A new upsurge of violence between the security forces and the PKK erupted in July in the wake of attacks blamed on Islamic extremists, shattering a fragile two-and-a-half-year truce.
Vowing to flush out the PKK from Turkey’s urban centres, the authorities have in recent weeks kept up curfews in three locations in the southeast to back up military operations that activists say have killed dozens of civilians.
Ten German tourists were killed on Tuesday in a suicide bombing in central Istanbul which the government blamed on Islamic State (IS) group, arch foe of the PKK.
South Korea leader calls for Chinese help to punish North Korea, South Korea’s president on Wednesday urged North Korea’s only major ally, China, to help punish Pyongyang’s recent nuclear test with the strongest possible international sanctions.
Park Geun-hye’s comments came as Seoul said North Korea had flown leaflets across the border describing her and her government as “mad dogs” as Cold War-style propaganda warfare continued between the rivals.
South Korea, the United States and others are pushing hard to impose fresh sanctions and other punitive measures on the North for what Pyongyang said was a hydrogen bomb test one week ago.
There is widespread skepticism over the H-bomb claim, but whatever the North detonated underground will likely push the country closer toward a fully functional nuclear arsenal, which it still is not thought to have.
Diplomats at a U.N. Security Council emergency session last week pledged to swiftly pursue new sanctions. For current sanctions and any new penalties to work, better cooperation and stronger implementation from China, the North’s diplomatic and economic protector and a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, is seen as key.
On Wednesday, Park said in a nationally televised news conference that South Korea will push as hard as it can for strong sanctions that can force change in North Korea. But, she said, Chinese help is crucial.
“Holding the hands of someone in a difficult situation is the mark of the best partner,” Park said, referring to China and South Korea’s need to punish the North. “I trust China, as a permanent member of the Security Council, will play a necessary role.”
