Turkish security forces reported that eight policemen were injured in a car bomb explosion in Turkiye’s Kurdish-majority Diyarbakir province on 16 December. Two of the culprits were arrested.

Local sources indicated that the attack occurred next to a livestock market 10 kilometers south of Diyarbakir, after a parked car exploded in the early morning as the police were passing by the site on their way to work.

Though the provincial governor disclosed that the explosion did not cause any severe injuries, the police officers in the passing armored bus were taken to the nearest hospital.

No specific group claimed responsibility for the attack. However, Kurdish militant groups residing in Syria have often been responsible for attacks on Turkish soil.

Following the 13 November explosion in Istanbul, which killed six individuals, Turkish officials held the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) accountable.

Turkiye has previously blamed Washington for the Kurdish separatist movement’s activities in the region, including its hostilities towards Ankara and the looting of Syrian oil.

On 15 December, Turkiye expressed the desire to collaborate with Syrian and Russian forces to combat these “terrorist groups” who have prolonged instability in the war-torn Arab nation.

Despite Ankara’s interest in bolstering joint defense cooperation between the three countries, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pressed his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to support his plans to establish a 30-kilometer deep “security corridor” along the shared border between Syria and Turkiye, as countermeasures against the Kurdish groups.

In response to the Istanbul bombing, the Turkish military launched operation Claw-Sword, increasing its attacks in Syria’s northeastern province to destabilize Kurdish defenses.

Earlier in December, the CIA’s Director Williams Burns told his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, that Turkiye’s operation in Syria puts US troops at risk, warning them to discontinue its operation.

Around 900 US occupation troops reside in northern Syria to assist the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in looting national oil.