A roadside bomb attack by Kurdish separatists on a Turkish military convoy injured 14 people in eastern Turkey, military officials said on Friday, according to Reuters. Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants detonated the explosives by remote control in the mountainous Tunceli province on the road south to Elazig, the officials said, on condition of anonymity. Three wounded soldiers were in seriously hurt. One of the injured was the civilian son of a convoy driver. Military units launched an operation with 500 soldiers backed by helicopters in the area to track down the rebels. PKK fighters regularly carry out such attacks on military vehicles in the mainly Kurdish southeast. Clashes with the military have escalated in recent weeks with the onset of warmer weather in the mountainous region. The PKK took up arms against the state in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the region. More than 40,000 people have died in the conflict.
