A Kurdish bomb attack in southeastern Turkey killed at least four, and injured up to 19, in the predominantly Kurdish town of Silopi on Monday, according to the country's state-run news agency. They detonated the bomb as a police vehicle was passing.

The police vehicle was reportedly patrolling the streets, a month after security forces ended military operations aimed at flushing out Kurdish militants in Silopi linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Silopi and several other towns and districts in southeastern Turkey were placed under curfew as Turkey's security forces fought Kurdish militants.

The Silopi attack was carried out with improvised explosive device hidden inside a manhole, the Anadolu Agency said.

Earlier in the day near the eastern city of Van, the PKK detonated a roadside bomb by remote control hitting a passing armored vehicle. Two police officers were killed and a third was wounded, sources said.

Post-ceasefire fighting intensifies

Clashes between Turkey's security forces and the PKK have become intense since the breakdown of a two-year ceasefire last July. The government has refused to return to the negotiating table and has vowed to "liquidate" the PKK, considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, Europe and the United States.

The PKK has targeted police and military personnel vehicles with bombs since the ceasefire collapsed.

The PKK is based in the remote, mountainous region of northern Iraq, which borders southern Turkey. It launched its insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984 and over 40,000 people have since been killed in the conflict.

jbh/jr (AP, Reuters)