UPDATE - 2 police martyred in PKK attack in eastern Turkey

UPDATES POLICE DEATHS, EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Abdullah Celik and Aydin Arik

BINGOL, Turkey (AA) - Two police officers were martyred when they were caught in a PKK terrorist bomb attack in eastern Turkey, according to sources on Sunday.

One officer died immediately in the vehicle bomb attack in Genc, a southern district of Bingol province, a security source said on Sunday. A medical source later said one of the six officers wounded in the blast died in hospital. Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

The remaining five injured officers and four wounded civilians were treated for non-life-threatening wounds.

The explosives-packed vehicle exploded late Saturday as a police vehicle passed.

Meanwhile, seven PKK terrorists were killed Saturday in the eastern province of Tunceli, local officials said.

Security forces killed the terrorists, including three women, in an operation backed by fighter jets, the provincial governor’s office said in a statement.

The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and EU -- resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July last year. Since then, more than 700 security force members have been martyred and around 8,000 PKK terrorists killed or apprehended.