1 killed, 4 injured in PKK attack in eastern Turkey

By Sitki Yildiz, Mesut Varol and Aziz Aslan

VAN, Turkey

A civilian was killed and four others were injured Tuesday in a PKK car bomb attack in eastern Turkey's Van province, the regional governor’s office said Wednesday.

According to a statement issued by the Van Governor’s Office, PKK terrorists detonated a bomb-laden car outside a gendarme station in the province’s Gurpinar district at 8.55 p.m. (1755GMT).

Nihat Peker, 40, died and four others, including two gendarme personnel were injured in the attack, it added.

An operation to nab the assailants was currently underway.

According to the governor’s office, counter-terrorism operations were taking "all precautions" to ensure safety of citizens.

Moreover, six PKK terrorists were apprehended in southeastern Diyarbakir province’s Lice district, the governor office announced Wednesday.

The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization also by the U.S. and the EU -- resumed its 30-year armed campaign against the Turkish state in July 2015.

Since then, nearly 600 security personnel, including troops, police officers, and village guards, have been martyred, and more than 7,700 PKK terrorists neutralized in operations across Turkey and northern Iraq.