ANKARA (AFP) – Two police officers were wounded in a bomb explosion in a restive province in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast, the Anatolia news agency reported Wednesday.

A roadside bomb was set off by remote control as a police vehicle was passing late Tuesday in the town of Yuksekova, in Hakkari province bordering both Iraq and Iran, the report said.

One of the officers in the car sustained serious injuries, it added.

There was no immediate word on who was behind the attack, but the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is active in the region.

The PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, has threatened retaliation following Turkish air raids on its bases in northern Iraq.

Since December 16, the Turkish army has said it has carried out five air strikes against rebel positions in northern Iraq as well as a ground cross-border operation to stop a group of rebels trying to infiltrate Turkey.

The PKK has been fighting for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey’s southeast and east since 1984 in a bloody conflict that has claimed more than 37,000 lives.