5 hurt in attack on military vehicle in eastern Turkey

At least three people have been killed and more than 50 others wounded when a auto bomb explosion ripped through the police headquarters in the troubled eastern province of Elazig, security sources say.

Turkish security forces launched an operation to apprehend the PKK militants responsible for the attack.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirum said the attacks Thursday are an indication the PKK, founded in 1978 as a socialist revolutionary organization, is weakening and resorting to suicide bombings.

Video footage showed a plume of black smoke rising above the city after the blast, which uprooted trees and gouged a large crater outside the police complex, which is situated on a busy thoroughfare in the city of 420,000 people.

Again, the authorities said that the attack was the doing of the PKK.

The Turkish security forces have been hit by near daily attacks from the PKK since a two-and-a-half year ceasefire collapsed in 2015, leaving hundreds of police and soldiers dead. Dozens of other individuals, consisting of some 20 cops officers, were wounded, officials stated.

On Thursday, a vehicle bomb blew up the police station in Elazig early in the morning, killing three officers and injuring 2017, of them 145 still in hospital.

A group of experts from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) criticised purges in the military, media, education and justice sectors.

Tens of thousands of people have died in the conflict since the PKK took up arms for autonomy in southeast Turkey in 1984.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman Ned Price issued a statement condemning the attacks.

“We will thwart the PKK like we thwarted FETO (Fethullah Terrorist Organisation)”, Defence Minister Fikri Isik told the Anadolu news agency, using the name Ankara gives to the movement led by Gulen. National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said US officials “are in close touch with Turkish authorities”, and the two countries will continue to work together to combat terrorist groups.

Four soldiers were also injured in the attack.