PKK attacks kill two Turkish security personnel, injure 14

MUS , Turkey, Sept. 15 (UPI) -- Two roadside bombings in eastern Turkey on Tuesday killed at least two police officers and injured more than a dozen security personnel, according to reports.

Xinhua news agency reports the officers were killed and another two were injured when militants with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, detonated a roadside bomb near a police convoy in Turkey's southeastern Hakkari province.

Turkey's state-run Andalou Agency reports 12 soldiers were wounded in a similar attack on the Mus-Diyarbakir/Kulp highway, near the town of Mus, in the east of the country.

PKK attacks on Turkish security personnel have been on the rise since July, when a 2013 cease-fire agreement dissolved after the Kurdish militants had reportedly claimed responsibility for killing two police officers in city of Gaziantep, in southeastern Turkey.

On Sunday, PKK rocket and car bomb attacks are reported to have killed at least three police officers in Turkey's southeast.

The government began conducting airstrikes on PKK positions at the same time it began bombing Islamic State militants in northern Syria. The Sunni Muslim extremists had killed more than 30 people during a July suicide bombing in the Turkish town of Suruc.

The Ankara government has since launched ground attacks on PKK forces in northern Iraq. Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari called on Turkey to coordinate its campaign with Baghdad, but Xinhua quoted a Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson as saying Tuesday that Turkey is fighting multiple extremist groups at once and will continue operations inside Iraqi borders.

Critics have accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of targeting Kurdish militants to reduce support for the HDP, a pro-Kurdish party that deprived the ruling government of its majority rule during June parliamentary elections, but the Turkish government has denied the allegations.