Marxist-Nationalist Kurdish Fighters Kill 4 Near Iraq-Turkey Border: Governor’s Office

Fighters of the Turkey-based Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) walk in the damaged streets of Sinjar, Iraq on Jan. 29, 2015. AP Photo/Bram Janssen, File

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey—Four workers were killed when Marxist-Nationalist Kurdish fighters detonated a roadside bomb that struck the labourers’ pick-up truck as it passed by in southeast Turkey on Wednesday, the local governor’s office said.

The blast occurred in the Silopi district, near the borders with Iraq and Syria, while the vehicle was carrying fuel to be used by workers involved in road construction, the Sirnak governor’s office said in a statement.

It said the explosives were planted and detonated by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters, which Turkey, the United States, and the European Union designate as a terrorist group.

The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict, focused in southeast Turkey.

Ankara regularly targets PKK fighters, both in its mainly Kurdish southeast and in northern Iraq, where the group is based. On Tuesday, Turkey launched a new operation against PKK targets in northern Iraq, as warplanes carried out air strikes on militant positions.

The Epoch Times contributed to this report.