11 soldiers wounded in mine blast in eastern Turkey

Eleven soldiers of the Turkish security forces were injured on Friday after their military convoy was hit by a mine blast in eastern Turkey, local private NTV channel reported.

The blast occurred in a rural area in the province of Tunceli of eastern Turkey, wounding these soldiers, one in serious condition, said NTV.

Meanwhile, Turkish authorities said the banned Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) staged a rocket attack on a military housing complex near the southern province of Osmaniye late Thursday, wounding the wife of a lieutenant, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported on Friday.

Four PKK members were captured with a bomb near the Aegean port city of Izmir on Friday, Anatolia also reported.

Police officers were quoted as saying that the bomb was discovered in a car in which the four were riding near the town of Buca.

The PKK took up arms in 1984 to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey and is listed as a terrorist organization by the Turkish government, the United States and the European Union.

Some 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts fuelled by the PKK's separatist campaign in Turkey. Enditem

Source: Xinhua