At least seven soldiers were killed and two others were injured on Thursday in a bomb attack on a road in southeast Turkey, a senior official said.

The explosion occurred on a road near the town of Gercus in the majority-Kurdish province of Batman. Numan Kurtulmus, a deputy chairman of Turkey’s ruling party, said the soldiers, who were inside an armored military vehicle, were on their way to protect a construction site in the region.

Earlier, the state-run Anadolu agency said they were traveling to carry out operations against the rebel group.

Four of the soldiers were killed at the site while three others died of their wounds while hospitalized.

The agency said the military had launched a “wide-scale” operation, backed by air power, to apprehend the assailants.

Source: Washington Post