Soldier killed, 3 wounded in mine blast in southeast Turkey
A mine blast killed one soldier, wounded three others when they were with a military motorcade in Hakkari province in southeast Turkey late Monday, state-run media TRT reported on Tuesday.
Infantry Corporal Onur Ayaydin was killed and Infantry Private Soldier Minnet Batir, Cafer Ulu and Mustafa Inci were wounded in the mine blast as they were in a search and rescue operation in Semdinli town of Hakkari province, according to the report.
The wounded soldiers were transferred to Hakkari Military Hospital by a military helicopter for treatment, said the report, Xinhua reported.
The report, however, did not say whether the mine blast was linked to the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK).
Listed as a terrorist group by the United States, the UN and the European Union, the PKK had been seeking to set up a Kurdistan state in Turkey's predominately Kurdish southeast.
The PKK began to fight the Turkish state in 1978, and some 40, 000 people have been killed in the 30-year-old conflict.
