The incident occurred as a police minivan passed a car that was rigged with explosives
FILE PHOTO: An ambulance in Türkiye. © Onur Dogman / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images
Eight police officers and a civilian were injured in southeastern Türkiye early on Friday morning, when a bomb hidden in a parked car detonated as a police minibus was passing by, Turkish officials have said.
The incident happened near a livestock market in the southern part of Diyarbakir, the provincial capital of the eponymous Turkish province, Governor Ali Ihsan Su told journalists. He described the blast as a terrorist attack.
The armored police vehicle was transporting riot officers via the highway connecting the city to Mardin in the neighboring province of the same name, Turkish media reported. The injured civilian was also inside the minibus.
It is understood that the lives of the victims are not in danger, but all nine were taken to hospital as a precaution. Seven have since been discharged, the governor said.
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu reported that law enforcement had taken two suspects into custody in connection with the attack.
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No group immediately claimed responsibility for the roadside bombing, and Turkish officials would not identify the suspects.
Last month, a bomb killed six people and injured dozens more in Istanbul. Ankara blamed a Kurdish militia based in northeastern Syria for masterminding the plot and responded with a campaign of cross-border airstrikes. The Syrian-based, Kurdish-led People’s Defense Units (YPG) militia denied any involvement, as did the PKK or Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which was named by Turkish officials as the culprit.
The PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US, and EU, denied any involvement in the Istanbul blast. The group has waged a decades-long guerrilla war against the Turkish government. Ankara says Kurdish militias in Syria are affiliates of the PKK.
