Six police officers were killed and at least 23 people wounded on Thursday in a bomb attack targeting a Turkish police vehicle in the Kurdish-majority southeastern city of Diyarbakir, a security source said.
The attack took place a day before Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, whose government has waged a relentless campaign against Kurdish rebels since last summer, was to make a rare visit to the city.
The source said a remotely-operated car bomb went off as a police vehicle drove past the city’s main bus terminal. Of the 23 wounded, nine were civilians and the rest police.
Ambulances rushed to the scene, where images showed the police bus reduced to a burnt-out wreck by the force of the blast.
Turkish forces have been engaged in an ongoing operation against rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the region that has resulted in ferocious clashes and heavy casualties on both sides.
Hundreds of security force members have been killed since the PKK resumed its more than three-decade insurgency last summer.
The new upsurge of violence between the security forces and Kurdish rebels erupted in July 2015, shattering a two-and-a-half year truce.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said this week that 355 members of the security forces had been killed in the fighting, along with 5,359 members of the PKK. It was not possible to confirm the toll on the rebel side.
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