WordBulletin

World Bulletin / News Desk 

Six soldiers and a civilian were killed in the eastern Turkish city of Tunceli on Tuesday when their armoured truck drove past a vehicle laden with explosives detonated by suspected PKK militants, security sources said.

Ambulances rushed to the scene of the explosion as flames rose from two vehicles on a road through a thinly populated part of the provincial city.

Militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, have carried out a wave of attacks on military targets in recent months, stepping up their 28-year-old armed campaign.

The recent fighting has been some of the heaviest since the PKK took up arms in 1984 with the aim of carving out a Kurdish state.

PKK militants killed 10 soldiers and wounded at least 60 last Tuesday when they fired rockets at a military convoy travelling between the provinces of Bingol and Mus, also in eastern Turkey.