One village guard, 2 soldiers killed in Turkey’s east, major anti-PKK op ongoing in Diyarbakır

ŞIRNAK

A village guard injured during an attack by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on June 11 in the southeastern province of Şırnak has succumbed to his injuries in hospital, Doğan News Agency has reported.

Two village guards and a soldier were hospitalized after PKK militants attacked security personnel conducting an operation in the Cudi Mountains in the province late on June 11. The village guard Abdurrahman Avcı, whose health situation was critical, died in the Şırnak State Hospital. 

Avcı was reported to have been wounded twice before in PKK attacks. One was in 1995, in the Gabar Mountains, and the other in the Şırnak city center when a curfew was intact. After his recovery, Avcı returned to his post. 

Separately, on the same day, a specialized sergeant was killed in another attack during an operation against the PKK in the eastern province of Bingöl. “On June 11, at around 19:30, our hero fellow soldier became a martyr in an attack by separatist terror organization [PKK] members in the region of Genç district, in the Sağlık neighborhood, in Bingöl,” the military said in a statement.

In another incident, a soldier was killed in an accident when a gun belonging to his friend went off during unloading and loading in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, Doğan News Agency has reported.  

The incident occurred in the Diyabakır 7th Corps Command late on June 10 as the 27-year-old Onur Yaman was keeping guard in a sentry box together with a companion soldier. As the other soldier unloaded and loaded his G-3 infantry rifle in line with the procedures at around 8:40 p.m. local time, the rifle was reported to have gone off “accidentally,” with the weapon firing on Yaman’s head, who was killed right on the spot. 

An investigation has been launched into the incident. 

Major land operation in Diyarbakır continues
 
Meanwhile, the army continued its major land operation against the PKK with the participation of up to 10,047 security personnel in six districts of Diyarbakır, state-run Anadolu Agency reported early on June 12. 

The operation was initiated on May 28 at 10 p.m. local time under the name “Martyr Gendarmerie Captain Fuat Oğuzcan Combined Arms Operation.”
 
Security forces found a tunnel, three shelters and one cave filled with ammunition and weapons, believed to belong to the PKK, during the operations.
   
A detailed search around and inside the places showed ammunitions belonging to 15 anti-tank rocket launchers as well as five anti-personnel rocket launchers, cartridges of 41 PKMS machine guns, various 51 cartridges, 215 AK-47 Kalashnikov infantry rifle ammunition clip, a can of diesel fuel, solar panel, battery of solar panel, connection cable, 29 Kalashnikov ammunition clip covers, some clothes, back-packs, snow boots, some documents and medical aid.

In line with an order from the prosecutor’s office, the tunnel, shelters and the cave were rendered “unusable,” whereas the other seized materials were annihilated. 

Additionally, in search operations conducted in five houses in a village on June 11, five draft lodgers were located for whom the necessary notifications were given and one “lost individual” was detained, the agency said, citing a statement from the Diyarbakır Governor’s Office.