Turkey: 2 people injured in land mine blasts

Two shepherds, including an 11-year-old boy, were injured Tuesday in two separate land mine explosions in southeast Turkey, where Kurdish rebels have been battling Turkish troops for autonomy, the Anatolia news agency reported.

In a separate incident, a bomb planted in a car belonging to a local official went off in Hakkari province early Tuesday, damaging two other cars and blowing out windows of nearby houses and businesses, the agency reported. There were no injuries. Hakkari is near the borders with Iran and Iraq.

Another shepherd stepped on a land mine while tending sheep in neighboring Van province, the agency reported.

Land mines kill or maim dozens of people in southeast Turkey each year. Both the Turkish army and rebels have planted mines, but Turkey says it stopped doing so in 1998, the AP reports.

More than 37,000 people have been killed since 1984, when guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers' Party took up arms in a fight for autonomy. A.M.