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10 Turkish Soldiers Killed in Southeast


The Turkish military says 10 soldiers have been killed in separate incidents in the country's southeast.

General Ilker Basbug said a bomb blast Wednesday killed nine soldiers traveling in an armored vehicle in Diyarbakir province to clear the way for a military convoy. He said the bomb was very powerful, and likely a homemade device.

Although he did not explicitly blame the Kurdish rebel group PKK, Basbug said these incidents make the military more determined to fight terrorism. Turkey, the United States and the European Union consider the PKK, or Kurdistan Worker's Party, a terrorist group.

In the southeastern province Hakkari, Turkish media report another soldier was killed in a gunbattle with PKK fighters.

Also Thursday, Turkish state news agency Anatolia reported a woman detonated a small explosive at a university in Ankara, Bilkent University, during a visit by former Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk.

Bodyguards were able to overpower the woman, and nobody was injured in the attack.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.

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