ANKARA, Aug 27 (AFP) - Two people were killed and five others were injured on Friday in a mine blast near the town of Pervari, in southeast Turkey, which was blamed on Kurdish rebels, authorities said.
The dead and injured, all members of the same family, were traveling on board a van when it hit the mine which was activated by remote control, Nuri Okutan, the regional governor, announced.
He blamed the attack on rebels from the former Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), now known as KONGRA-GEL.
Numerous villages in the area were evacuated in the 1980s and 1990s by the army to prevent local residents from aiding the rebels.
The PKK, which has waged a 15-year war for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish eastern and southeastern parts of Turkey, ended a unilateral ceasefire with the government on June 1.
Since then the group has been blamed for a series of deadly attacks on security forces as well as the bombing of two hotels in Istanbul earlier this month, in which two people were killed and 11 others, mostly foreign tourists, were injured.
The rebels have threatened more attacks on tourist and economic targets across the country.
Some 37,000 people have been killed since the PKK took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in 1984.