Eight Turkish police officers were injured on Friday when a bomb exploded in a roadside vehicle as their minibus drove past on a highway in southeastern Diyarbakir province, security sources said.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said two people had been arrested and were believed to be the perpetrators of the blast.
“There was an explosion in a parked vehicle at 5:10 a.m. when a police vehicle went to work in Diyarbakir,” he said.
The Diyarbakir governor’s office said the bomb seriously injured no one but nine people who had been in the armored van were taken to hospital for examination.
The blast happened near a cattle market about 6 miles south of central Diyarbakir, the largest city in the region, the sources said.
Forensic scientists are investigating the scene after a bomb exploded on a road vehicle. Portal
There was no direct assumption of responsibility. Kurdish, leftist and Islamist militants have historically carried out all of the bombings in Turkey.
A bomb killed six and wounded dozens in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, last month. Dozens of people, including a Syrian woman, were arrested as suspects.
Turkey blamed Kurdish militants for that blast, but even then no group claimed responsibility. The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) denied involvement.
The bomb went off as a bus carrying police officers drove by. Portal
The PKK launched an insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984, mostly centered on Turkey’s mainly Kurdish south-east. More than 40,000 people were killed in the conflict.
It is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.