UPDATE 5 - 9 martyred in PKK attack in SE Turkey

UPDATES CASUALTY NUMBERS

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (AA) - A total of nine people were martyred in terrorist group PKK's vehicle bomb attack on a police station in the largest city in southeast Turkey on Friday.

Police sources, who had spoken on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media, said the number of martyred civilians had risen from six to seven.

Earlier, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim had mentioned eight deaths, including two police officers and six civilians. One terrorist was also killed, he said.

The prime minister had added that 100 people had been injured, 93 of whom had been released from hospitals. However, one wounded civilian succumbed to his injuries in the hospital, according to police.

Diyarbakir provincial governor’s office had said in a statement that the PKK terrorist group staged the bomb attack.

The blast struck a building used by riot police officers in Baglar, a district in the center of Diyarbakir province, at 7.53 a.m. local time (0453GMT), the governor’s office said in the statement.

The area of the attack is heavily populated and civilians, particularly students, would have been in the vicinity, the statement added.

The explosion damaged nearby cars and premises. Fire fighters and ambulances rushed to the area following the detonation and the government imposed a broadcast ban, as is usual in the aftermath of terrorist incidents.

- Detention of HDP deputies

The attack followed the arrests earlier Friday of 11 lawmakers from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), including the party’s two co-chairs Figen Yuksekdag and Selahattin Demirtas and parliamentary group leader Idris Baluken. A 12th HDP lawmaker was arrested later.

Yuksekdag, Demirtas, Baluken and deputy chairman of the party Sirri Sureyya Onder were all sent to court after their investigations had been completed.

The government has accused the HDP of links to the PKK terrorist group. The deputies were arrested for failing to answer a summons to testify as part of a counter-terrorism investigation, a security source said.

The deputies face prosecution under anti-terrorism laws after their parliamentary immunity was lifted earlier this year, along with other lawmakers from Turkey’s main political parties. Unlike deputies from other parties, the HDP lawmakers had refused to appear to testify.

Both the police and security sources spoke to Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

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, PKK terrorist attacks martyred more than 700 security personnel and also claimed the lives of many civilians, including women and children, while nearly 8,000 PKK terrorists were killed in army operations.