12 PKK members killed in Şemdinli

DİYARBAKIR - Doğan News Agency

Handout photo by Turkish Armed Forces

Turkish security forces killed 12 Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants in clashes in southeastern Turkey today after they tried to infiltrate a district military post.

PKK militants tried to storm a military post in Hakkari province’s Şemdinli district, a mountainous area bordering Iraq and Iran that has witnessed frequent clashes over the past year.

Meanwhile, suspected members of the PKK attacked a convoy of military vehicles 20 kilometers from Çukurca in the eastern province of Hakkari with a land mine but failed to cause any injuries.

Elsewhere in Hakkari on Oct. 1, an unidentified person or persons set ablaze an elementary school in the province’s Yeni Mahalle neighborhood. The unidentified attackers allegedly broke the windows of the school with stones before setting fire to the building with Molotov cocktails.

Fatih Sultan Mehmet Elementary School, a three-story building composed of six classrooms, was seriously damaged, while educational materials in the classrooms were left unusable.

Security forces subsequently arrived at the scene of the incident to launch an operation to detain the attackers.