Four Turkish soldiers killed

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey: Four Turkish soldiers were killed and nine wounded on Wednesday when a bomb was detonated as their vehicle travelled past in the mainly Kurdish southeast of the country, the military said.

The army deployed troops backed by helicopters to the area, located about 70 km from the town of Semdinli near the Iraqi border, to launch an operation in the wake of the attack, security sources said.

Explosives had been laid in the road in advance of the soldiers’ convoy, the military said on its website.

Security forces have been battling militants in the armed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the southeast since a ceasefire collapsed in July 2015, wrecking a peace process aimed at resolving one of Europe’s longest-running insurgencies.