Ongoing offensive: Two Turkish soldiers die in suicide attack

Kurdish militants claim responsibility; over 30 soldiers injured

ISTANBUL: Two Turkish soldiers were killed and dozens wounded Sunday evening in a suicide attack claimed by Kurdish militants, as Ankara kept up its air campaign against the rebels' bases in northern Iraq.

The attack in the Dogubayazit district of the eastern Agri province is the first time Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants have been accused of staging a suicide attack in the current crisis, amid an escalating cycle of violence.

Ankara has launched a two-pronged "anti-terror" offensive against Islamic State militants in Syria and PKK militants based in northern Iraq after a series of attacks inside Turkey including a devastating suicide bombing blamed on the IS group.

The suspected PKK suicide bomber drove a tractor laden with two tonnes of explosives up to the military station in the Dogubayazit district, the official Anatolia news agency reported, quoting the local governor's office.

Two soldiers were killed and 31 were wounded, four seriously, the army said. In a statement, the PKK claimed the attack as a "sabotage event".

The soldiers were deployed with the local Jandarma (Gendarmerie), a branch of the army that looks after internal security in Turkey.

Such was the power of the blast that houses in a village several hundred metres away were hit by debris and several villagers slightly injured, the Dogan news agency said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 3^rd, 2015.