WASHINGTON: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said an attack in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir on Thursday that killed seven people and wounded 27 showed the “ugly face” of militants “as they are cornered.”
“This shows terrorism’s ugly face again. The determination of our security forces will put an end” to terrorism, Erdogan said in a speech to the Brookings Institute.
He is in the US for a nuclear security summit. A local official in Ankara said all the dead were members of the security forces.
The police officers were killed in an explosion caused by a bomb-laden car in Diyarbakir, Turkish news agencies reported. The explosives detonated as a vehicle carrying special forces and riot police passed by.
The Anadolu Agency said a vehicle carrying special forces was caught in the blast.
The private Dogan news agency blamed terrorists for the incident.
The blast damaged several cars and shattered almost all the windows of a high rise building in the area.
At least six ambulances deployed to collect casualties and security forces rushed to seal off the area.
The attack comes one day before Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is due to visit the city, including the historic Sur district where several neighborhoods are under curfew.
Turkey has been imposing curfews in several districts of the southeast since August to flush out militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
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