Twosoldiers were wounded and 13 others lightly injured when a blast struck their minibus in Turkey's Southeastern Hakkari province on Thursday morning, causing the bus to roll over. The attack took place at seven a.m. as soldiers were travelling in a civilian minibus outside the provincial capital, Hakkari Governor Muammer Türker said.According to Turker, the explosives were detonated by remote control and a second detonating device was also recovered on site.
PKK terrorists have stepped up attacks on the Turkish military, killing more than 40 security personnel in the past month. In retaliation, the Turkish military launched air raids on PKK targets in northern Iraq, its first strikes in the region in more than a year.
The increased military activity marks a return to a more hard-line stance in the fight against the PKK terrorist organization after the collapse of efforts to negotiate a settlement to the 27-year-old conflict. The PKK took up arms against the state in 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.