PKK attacks claim 26 lives in Turkey since early July

ISTANBUL

The flag-draped coffin of late Turkish soldier Hamza Yildirim, who died in an attack the day before, is carried by honour guards during his funeral ceremony at Kocatepe Mosque in Ankara, Turkey, on July 31, 2015. AFP Photo

Three police officers, Ahmet Ümit Sercan, Muhammet Onur Demir and Salih Hüseyin Parça, died in multiple armed offensives by outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants in Turkey’s southeast over the weekend, the latest in a series of violent attacks against security forces across the country which have claimed 26 lives over the past month.

Sercan was killed when PKK militants fired shots with long-barreled weapons at police officers on daily patrol in the Midyat district of the southeastern province of Mardin at around 9:30 p.m. on Aug. 8, Doğan News Agency reported.

Demir, the officer injured in an armed assault by PKK militants in the Silopi district of the eastern province of Şırnak on Aug. 7 which killed five people including a soldier, died in a hospital in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on Aug. 8.

Parça was killed when PKK militants fired rockets at a guarded police vehicle in Şırnak’s Cizre district on Aug. 7. 

At least 23 security personnel and 11 civilians have been killed in PKK attacks since July 7, and more than 100 people have been injured. Twelve terrorists have been killed and two others have been injured over the same period, while more than a hundred vehicles have been set ablaze by PKK militants.

Security sources, meanwhile, told Anadolu Agency that Turkish airstrikes have killed at least 390 PKK militants in northern Iraq so far.