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Turkey detains Kurdish leaders as deadly blast hits southeast

Turkish police on Friday detained almost a dozen MPs from the country’s main pro-Kurdish party, including its two co-leaders, as eight people were killed in a deadly car bombing blamed on Kurdish militants.

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag appeared before judges in the city of Diyarbakir, state-run Anadolu news agency said.

As the hearings got underway, a blast by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) struck outside a police station nearby in the Baglar district of Diyarbakir, Turkey’s main majority Kurdish city.

Eight people were killed, including two police personnel, and over 100 wounded, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced, updating an earlier toll, saying the PKK had again showed its “ugly face”.

The arrest of the HDP co-leaders along with nine other MPs, is a major escalation of a crackdown on leading pro-Kurdish politicians in the wake of the failed military coup in July. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini tweeted she was “extremely worried” over the detentions and would call a meeting of EU ambassadors in Ankara.
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