Derik governor dies after attack in Turkey’s Mardin

Derik governor Fatih Safiturk succumbs to wounds, a day after explosion in his office in Mardin, near the Syria border.

Map of Mardin

Turkey’s state-run news agency says an official has died of wounds sustained in an attack on a government building in southeastern Turkey.

The Anadolu Agency said Fatih Safiturk, the district governor of the town of Derik, died in a hospital on Friday.

Safiturk and two others were wounded on Thursday when assailants attacked his office, near the border with Syria, with an improvised explosive device.

Several others were wounded in the Derik attack.

Security forces launched an operation to catch the assailants, state news said, without providing details.

Authorities have blamed the attack on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

Kurdish fighters, however, have not claimed responsibility.

A fragile peace process between the government and the PKK broke down last year, leading to renewed violence in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeastern region.

At least 700 state security personnel and thousands of Kurdish fighters have been killed since then, according to Anadolu.

Turkey has been rocked by a series of deadly bomb attacks in the past 18 months, carried out by the PKK or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.

Source: News Agencies