Police officer killed in PKK car bomb attack in Turkey’s Diyarbakır

DİYARBAKIR – Anadolu Agency

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One police officer was killed and seven people were wounded on June 28 in an outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) car bomb attack in the Dicle district of the southeastern province of Diyarbakır.

PKK militants staged a bomb attack during the passing of a police vehicle in the district’s 27 Mayıs neighborhood.

The Diyarbakır Governor’s Office initially announced that two police officers, one in critical condition, and six civilians were wounded in the attack. The wounded civilians were taken to Dicle State Hospital while the two wounded police officers were transferred to the Diyarbakır Military Hospital, the statement said. However, police officer Mustafa Yıldırım later succumbed to his injuries in hospital.

It added the investigation into the attack was ongoing.

Houses and shops near the scene were also damaged by the explosion.

Meanwhile, security forces continued to conduct their anti-terror operations against PKK militants in the southeast, finding and destroying the group’s financial resources. According to sources, in the last five days over 20 million cannabis plants and some three tons of cannabis were destroyed and over 10 tons of ammonium nitrate was seized in the Lice district of Diyarbakır.  

While the work to detect further cannabis fields was ongoing, the current operation to uproot them was being carried out by 36 construction machines with the help of security personnel in areas where the machines could not reach.  

The operation came after the Interior Ministry revealed a report on June 26 suggesting that PKK earned nearly $1.7 billion each year through its involvement in the production and trading of cannabis, in addition to drug smuggling.

As part of the Lice operation, sources said, some 11,000 vehicles and 23,000 people were searched. A total of 103 people were detained and 11 of them were arrested for allegedly conducting drug trade, providing space for terrorist groups and aiding terrorist groups.