Three Turkish police killed in attack blamed on Kurdish militants

Kurdish militants killed three police officers in an attack on their convoy in southeastern Turkey on Monday, security officials said.                     Explosives placed on a highway in Mardin province were detonated remotely as the convoy carrying police personnel passed at 1:20 pm (1020 GMT), they said. The officers were travelling in an armoured vehicle.       

 

Fighters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were behind the attack, the officials said.        

 

Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast has been wracked by violence over the past year after a two-year ceasefire between the PKK and the state collapsed last July.          

 

The PKK took up arms in 1984, and more than 40,000 people, mainly Kurds, have died in the ensuing violence.       

 

Turkey is on tenterhooks after a faction of the military attempted to overthrow the government on July 15. More than 240 people were killed in the violence.