Turkish state media: 3 killed in car bomb attack

Three people were killed and dozens injured Tuesday in a car bomb attack near a police bus in Diyarbakir, Turkey, the state-run news agency said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Security forces in Turkey have launched an investigation to capture members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, a militant left-wing organization also known as the PKK, thought to be behind the attack, the Anadolu Agency reported.

Nine police officers in a police vehicle were taking seven suspected PKK militants for medical checks. The three victims were seriously wounded in the attack and later died in hospital, the Diyarbakir governor’s office said in a statement, the Associated Press reported. Twelve officers and 33 civilians were wounded in the attack, the statement said.

Turkey has seen an increase in attacks recently. In the past year, more than 200 people in Turkey have been killed in six major bombings.

Turkey considers the PKK a terrorist group that seeks to create an autonomous region for Kurds out of parts of Turkey, Syria and Iraq. The PKK accuses Turkey of joining the fight against the Islamic State to counter Kurdish control along the border with Syria and to exclude Kurds from gaining a voice in Turkey's democracy.

Exiled from Turkey, senior PKK members have lived in northern Iraq, where they've trained, recruited and planned strategy.