The Turkish authorities have vowed to escalate the fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) following the deaths of a 25-year-old woman and her 11-month-old baby, who have been formally declared martyrs and given an official funeral, which became a platform for America-bashing.

The pair perished in Hakkari, a rugged mountainous province bordering Iraq, when an improvised explosive device planted on a roadside went off. Nurcan Karakaya and her infant son were riding back from a surprise visit to her husband, a noncommissioned officer stationed in the mainly Kurdish region, which has seen violent clashes between the Turkish army and PKK militants slipping in from their bases in Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran.

Serkan Karakaya told the HaberTurk news channel, “They spent two hours with me, then they left and within 15 minutes the explosion occurred. There is nothing to be done, may [their] two lives be a gift to the homeland.” Footage from the scene of the blast published by the pro-government Sabah newspaper showed a mangled black car and a crater in a narrow mountain pass.

Turkish authorities blamed the incident on the outlawed PKK, which resumed its bloody campaign for Kurdish autonomy when a two-and-a-half-year cease-fire collapsed in 2015. The PKK has neither claimed nor denied responsibility for the attack. But the group has targeted civilians, including foreign tourists, and seized hostages throughout the 34-year conflict that has claimed at least 40,000 lives, mostly those of militants.