by Our Foreign Desk

KURDISTAN Workers’ Party (PKK) rebels detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at a military police station in eastern Turkey yesterday, killing two soldiers and wounding 31 others.

The PKK used two tons of explosives to attack the station near the town of Dogubayazit in Agri province, close to Turkey’s border with Iran, causing extensive damage to the building.

The military said that four of the injured soldiers were in serious condition.

One soldier was killed and four others were injured in a separate attack, when their military vehicle hit a land mine in south-eastern Mardin province.

Violence has flared in Turkey in the past 10 days, shattering a fragile peace process launched in 2012 with the PKK.

The Ankara government has conducted almost daily air strikes on PKK bases in northern Iraq following Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s announcement that he would wage war against Isis and the PKK.

He and Washington have announced the outlines of a deal to establish a bridgehead in northern Syria to replace Isis with rebels more in tune with Washington and Ankara.

But the main effect of a Turkish-controlled enclave would be to prevent Syrian Kurdish people’s defence units from linking up in territory they control along the Turkish border.

Turkey’s allies back its fight against the PKK but they also urge restraint and a return to the peace process.

Government critics and Kurdish activists accuse the government of reigniting the conflict in a bid to win nationalist votes and erode support for the country’s pro-Kurdish party in possible new elections in autumn.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency claimed that 260 rebels were killed in air raids on PKK targets in northern Iraq, but Kurdish activists stress that civilians have borne the brunt of the attacks.

Iraq’s Kurdish regional government called for the withdrawal of PKK military units from its territory to prevent civilian deaths while condemning Turkey for bombing civilians.

It also urged both sides to resume peace talks.

Ankara said on Saturday that it had launched an investigation into civilian deaths, insisting that targets are attacked only after the military is satisfied that areas are free of civilians.

It also claimed, implausibly, that the PKK sometimes uses civilians as human shields.