Four cops killed as strong blast hits Turkish city of Diyarbakir

Diyarbakir: Four police officers were killed and 14 people wounded in a bomb attack on Thursday targeting the Turkish police in the Kurdish-majority southeastern city of Diyarbakir, a security source said.

Turkey's security forces are engaged in an operation against Kurdish rebels from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the region.

Security sources told AFP the bomb exploded as an armoured vehicle of the security forces passed by.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, whose government has waged a relentless campaign against PKK rebels since last summer, was due on Friday to make a rare visit to Diyarbakir.

Hundreds of security forces members, rebels and civilians have been killed since the PKK resumed its more than three-decade insurgency after a fragile truce collapsed last summer.

Over 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK took up arms in 1984 demanding a homeland for Turkey's biggest minority. Since then, the group has pared back its demands to focus on cultural rights and a measure of autonomy.