Two bomb attacks blamed on Kurdish militants have killed seven members of the security forces and wounded 224 people in south-east Turkey, officials and security sources said, in a renewed escalation of violence across the region. Three police officers were killed and 217 people were wounded, 85 of them police officers, the prime minister, Binali Yıldırım, said. They said the blast killed three soldiers and a member of the state-sponsored village guard militia and wounded another seven soldiers. Thousands of militants and hundreds of soldiers and police officers have been killed, according to official figures. More than 40,000 people have been killed in violence since the PKK first took up arms in 1984.

Source: The Guardian August 18, 2016 13:36 UTC