Three security officers killed in PKK attacks, car crash in Turkey’s southeast

VAN/HAKKARİ/DİYARBAKIR

Two soldiers and one police officer, wounded in attacks by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and a military vehicle crash, succumbed to their injuries at hospitals where they were being treated in the southeastern provinces of Van, Hakkari and Diyarbakır. 

PKK militants had detonated an improvised explosive device buried under the asphalt road stretching between Aktütün and Beyyurdu near Turkey’s border with Syria on May 18. 

The blast occurred during the passage of two armored army vehicles at 2:05 p.m., around 70 kilometers from the center of the Şemdinli district of Hakkari.

Four soldiers were killed and nine others were wounded in the attack and the injured soldiers were taken to hospital on May 18. One of the wounded soldiers succumbed to his wounds, thus increasing to five the number of soldiers killed in the attack. 

Another soldier, specialized sergeant Fırat Kılıç, succumbed to his injuries after an armored vehicle that he was in, heading to the Gürpınar district of Van, crashed. 

Two soldiers were killed in the crash on May 19, while a specialized sergeant was also killed on the Gürpınar-Edremit motorway in Van on the same day, bringing the number of killed soldiers to three. 

Meanwhile, a police officer succumbed to his injuries in the Gülhane Military Medical Academy (GATA) in Ankara, after being hit in a PKK attack in Diyarbakır on May 10. 

Mücahit Erbaşlı was heavily wounded after PKK militants staged a bomb attack targeting an armored police shuttle in Diyarbakır. Erbaşlı was reportedly the driver of the shuttle at the time of the attack, in which four people died and 44 people were wounded. A former village guard was killed and eight soldiers were wounded on May 20 in an outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) attack in the Artuklu district of the southeastern province of Mardin.

PKK militants first raided the Bağlıca village and killed former village chief and village guard Kazım Kavak at around 12:30 p.m.

Ambulances and additional soldiers were deployed to the village following the killing of Kavak. 

However, PKK militants detonated a bomb placed on the road during the passing of military vehicles heading toward the village. Eight soldiers were wounded in the explosion. However, no injuries were reported from the health personnel inside the ambulance. The wounded soldiers were taken to Mardin State Hospital.

Security forces have conducted a wide-scale operation in the region to apprehend the PKK militants and the road where the attack happened was also closed to traffic.

In another incident, one plainclothes police officer was shot dead yesterday in an attack in the southeastern province of Adana.

Two assailants riding on a motorbike opened fire on police officer Yılmaz Bozkurt while he was delivering documents in the Seyhan district of the Mediterranean city.

Bozkurt was heavily injured in the attack and later died while being treated at hospital.

His assailants fled the scene after the attack.

An investigation has launched into the attack and police teams have been deployed to the scene.

Turkish jets have conducted air strikes against outlawed PKK positions in northern Iraq, the Turkish Armed Forces stated on May 20.

The jets hit the Gara region of northern Iraq between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. and destroyed shelters belonging to the PKK on May 20, according to the statement. 

Meanwhile, the jets also hit the Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq, known as the headquarters of the PKK, between 9 a.m. and 9:45 p.m. on May 19.

Shelters and weapon-launching areas belonging to the PKK were destroyed in the airstrikes, according to the armed forces statement, adding that the warplanes returned to their bases in Turkey after the operation.