Bomb attack kills three police officers in southeast Turkey

Three Turkish policemen were killed and four wounded in a roadside bomb attack blamed on Kurdish rebels in the southeast of the country, the security services said Monday.

The attack blamed on Kurdish militants took place late on Sunday in the town of Idil in Sirnak province near the Syrian border, a local security official, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

The roadside bomb exploded as a police convoy was passing.

Three officers were badly wounded and died in hospital, and four others were slightly injured, the official said.

The Turkish government has been waging a relentless offensive aimed at crippling the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has staged a string of attacks against security forces in Turkey since an two-year-old ceasefire fell apart in late July.

The violence has destroyed hopes of fresh talks to end a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 1984.

Vowing to flush the PKK from Turkey's urban centres, the authorities have in recent weeks enforced curfews in three locations in the southeast to back up military operations that activists say have killed dozens of civilians.

Growing criticism of the military campaign from academics and opposition politicians has provoked a strong reaction from the authorities, who have used sweeping laws against criticising the state to prosecute its opponents.

On Monday it was reported that the Ankara chief prosecutor's office had opened an investigation into Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the opposition Republic People's Party (CHP), for calling Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a "tinpot dictator".

Last week more than 1,200 academics from 90 Turkish universities signed a petition condemning the military crackdown in the Kurdish-dominated southeast.

"The Turkish state has effectively condemned its citizens in Sur, Silvan, Nusaybin, Cizre, Silopi, and many other towns and neighbourhoods in the Kurdish provinces to hunger through its use of curfews that have been ongoing for weeks," read the petition.

"We demand the government prepare the conditions for negotiations and create a road map that would lead to a lasting peace which includes the demands of the Kurdish political movement."

Prosecutors on Thursday launched a vast investigation into the academics for engaging in "terrorist propaganda" and "inciting hatred and enmity" by signing the petition.

Then on Friday Turkish police detained at least 18 of them, sparking international concern at restrictions on freedom of expression in Turkey.