In Turkey, ten soldiers and eight civilians have died from a truck bomb explosion. Kurdish militants are suspected to have detonated the bomb. The blast ripped through the Durak gendarmerie station, 20 kilometers from the town of Semdinli in the country's southeastern Hakkari province.
According to a local official, a small truck had approached a checkpoint and ignored an order to stop, prompting troops to open fire. Another 27 people -- including 11 soldiers -- were wounded in the blast.
The mountainous Hakkari province is a main flashpoint in the conflict that has pitted the Turkish army against the Kurdistan Workers Party for three decades.