One soldier killed, three wounded in PKK attack in Turkey’s southeast
HAKKARI
One Turkish soldier was killed and three soldiers were wounded in an attack carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the southeastern province of Hakkari, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Jan. 14.
The PKK attack came from the Iraqi side of the border, targeting a base area by Hakkari’s Güven Mountain, security officials said.
The attack, identified to have been carried out by a guided missile, injured a soldier who was then taken to a hospital for treatment.
The wounded soldier succumbed to his wounds there.
The operation in the area against the group is ongoing, the agency reported.
The killing of the soldier is the first since Turkey on Jan. 13 dispatched a military convoy to the Syrian border in Turkey’s southern Hatay province.
Early on Jan. 14, a source in the region said the Turkish military hit several Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) targets in the Afrin district of Syria’s Aleppo province to prevent a “terror corridor” from forming along Turkey’s borders.
The Turkish army fired at least 40 times during the artillery bombardment in Afrin’s five regions including Bosoufane, Jindires and Rajo.
The Turkish artillery units hit the YPG forces from the border province of Hatay.
The military operation follows President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s call for the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the political wing of the YPG and affiliated to the PKK, in Afrin to surrender.
Erdoğan said on Jan. 13 that any venture in the region “has no chance of success” if Turkey has no consent in it, referring to the PYD’s efforts to settle in Syria’s northern regions along the Turkish border.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report stated that two Turkish soldiers were killed in the attack.
