Agencies
Ankara, August 18: Two car bombings targeted police stations in Turkey, killing at least six people and wounding 219 others, Aofficials said Thursday. A car bombing attack on a police station in the eastern province of Van late Wednesday killed a police officer and two civilians. At least 73 other people, 53 civilians and 20 police officers were wounded, officials said. Authorities blamed that attack on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has launched a campaign of car bombings targeting police stations or roadside bomb attacks on police vehicles. Last week, PKK commander Cemil Bayik threatened increased attacks against the police in Turkish cities.
Hours later, another car bombing hit police headquarters in the eastern Turkish city of Elazig early Thursday, killing at least three police officers and wounding 146 other people, Governor Murat Zorluoglu said. At least 14 of them were in serious condition. Mahmut Varol, the deputy mayor for Elazig, told Haber Turk television that the explosion occurred on the grounds of the police headquarters and caused cars parked nearby to catch fire. Video footage showed a large plume of smoke rising from the area. Cars were overturned and the windows of the four-storey building and its wings were blown out.
Fighting between the PKK and Turkey’s security forces resumed last year after a fragile peace process collapsed. Since then, more than 600 Turkish security personnel and thousands of PKK militants have been killed, according to state-run Anadolu Agency. Human rights groups say hundreds of civilians have also died in the clashes. Tens of thousands of people have died in the conflict since the PKK took up arms for autonomy in southeast Turkey in 1984. Turkey and its allies consider the PKK a terrorist organisation.
Boy forced to confess IS allegiance
New York: A 12-year-old Pakistani-American special needs student was forced by a school here to sign a false confession stating that he was part of IS and wanted to blow up the school fence, according to a $25 million lawsuit filed by his family. The Muslim family from Long Island has sued the East Islip Union Free School District for $25 million, saying their son Nashwan Uppal was taunted by his classmates as a “terrorist” and then was asked repeatedly by school officials if he was a terrorist, if he made bombs, if he knew who “Osama” was and if he was part of IS.
Haunting image of Syrian boy released
Beirut: Syrian opposition activists have released haunting footage showing a young boy rescued from the rubble in the aftermath of a devastating air strike in Aleppo. The image of the stunned and weary looking boy, sitting in an orange chair inside an ambulance covered in dust and with blood on his face, encapsulates the horrors inflicted on the war-ravaged northern city and is being widely shared on social media. A doctor in Aleppo Thursday identified the boy as 5-year-old Omran Daqneesh.