11 Turkish soldiers killed in spate of PKK attacks

Eleven Turkish soldiers were killed and dozens more injured on Wednesday in two attacks blamed on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), local security sources have said.

In the deadliest attack to hit Turkey on Wednesday, five soldiers were killed and eight others wounded in the Uludere district of the southeastern province. Sources told AFP that a road bomb detonated when an army vehicle drove past. 

In a separate incident, four soldiers were killed and nine others wounded when the PKK attacked a military vehicle in the Beytussebap district of the southeastern province of Sırnak, the army said. 

In the early hours of Wednesday, two soldiers were also killed and two others were wounded in a PKK attack in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir, the Dogan news agency said.  

The bombings, in the restive southeast of the country, were blamed on the PKK with which has been Turkish military has renewed fighting since the collapse of a two-year ceasefire in July last year.

The Turkish army's hierarchy has been badly hit in a purge that followed the 15 July failed coup against the government. During the failed putsch, during which more than 250 people were killed, tanks rolled onto the streets of Istanbul and Ankara, while a rogue military faction tried to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from power. The PKK de-escalated its attacks immediately following the coup but has since revved up its fight.

Nearly half of all generals have been imprisoned or dismissed, raising concerns about the coordination of the fight against Kurdish rebels. However, government sources recently stressed that the army had not been badly hit and that the military would be able to continue operations, as well as its commitment to NATO. 

A draft document obtained by Buzzfeed showed that the plotters were unhappy with the government's attempts to make peace with the Kurdish rebels. The three-and-a-half-page draft indictment was confirmed as authentic by Turkish officials and claimed to have mirrored longstanding criticisms levelled at the government by members of the Gulen movement. 

More than 600 Turkish security personnel have been killed by the PKK since the collapse of a ceasefire last year, according to a toll given by state-run Anadolu news agency on 31 July.

The government has responded with military operations against the group, claiming to have killed more than 7,000 PKK fighters in Turkey and northern Iraq, the agency said. It is not possible to independently verify the toll.

Activists claim innocent civilians have also been killed in the offensives.

Over 40,000 people, on both the Kurdish and Turkish sides 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.

The Turkish government under Erdogan began peace talks with the PKK in 2014. Many had hoped that the talks would lead to an eventual solution to the "Kurdish question" that has existed since Turkey's inception as a republic but tensions escalated over Syria where Kurdish fighters have been battling the Islamic State group that has also launched attacks in Turkey.