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Turkey says suicide bomber in Hatay is PKK militant

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Posted On 26 October 2020

A suspected Kurdish militant blew themselves up Monday in a suspected suicide bomb attack in southern Turkey, security sources said. An explosion occurred in the town of Iskenderun in the southern province of Hatay on Monday evening, which the local governor blamed on one of two “terrorists”. “Our security forces at a control point in the town of Payas were suspicious of two terrorists and one was neutralised after they were followed to Iskenderun (town) and during this, there was an explosion,” Hatay governor Rahmi Dogan said. No one else was killed, but a security operation was ongoing, he said in a tweet.

A Turkish security source said the two individuals were from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and an army sergeant had been injured in the attack, without providing further details. The source said that the two individuals tried to escape, but realising they would be caught, one exploded a bomb on their body, while the second ran away. The PKK, which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, is blacklisted as a terrorist group by Ankara, the United States and the European Union.

AFP

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