DIYARBAKIR: (APP) At least eight people, mostly civilians, were killed on Wednesday in two separate bomb attacks targeting police blamed on Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in Turkey's southeast, officials said.
Five people, all civilians, were killed in a car bomb attack in the centre of the city of Diyarbakir, the regional governor's office said in a statement.Twelve people were wounded including five police, it added.
Another three people -- two civilians and one policeman -- lost their lives in a near-simultaneous car bombing in Kiziltepe in Mardin province to the south, said Transport Minister Ahmet Arslan, quoted by the state-run Anadolu news agency.
Fifteen civilians were wounded in the attack which took place close to the town's hospital, he added.
Both bomb attacks had been aimed at passing police vehicles but ended up killing mainly civilians.
Pictures showed the force of the explosion caused considerable damage to nearby buildings and vehicles in the Mardin bombing.
The authorities believe both blasts have been carried out by the PKK, a Turkish official said.
Hundreds of members of the Turkish security forces have been killed by the PKK in attacks since the collapse of a two-year ceasefire in July last year.
Earlier Wednesday, five Turkish soldiers were killed in an attack blamed on PKK militants in Uludere in the southeastern Sirnak province close to the Iraqi border. Eight other soldiers were wounded.
Over 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK first took up arms in 1984. It is proscribed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.