157 tons of ammonium nitrate seized in Turkey’s southeast

DİYARBAKIR

AA Photo

Some 157 tons of ammonium nitrate have been confiscated in operations carried out at two addresses in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, the Turkish Armed Forces has announced.

The operations were conducted with the gendarmerie in the Reşik neighborhood of Diyarbakır’s Hazro district, it stated. 

The Armed Forces also announced that a total of 105 PKK militants were “neutralized” in operations conducted between Oct. 20 and 26 in the southeastern provinces of Hakkari, Şırnak, Diyarbakır and the eastern provinces of Siirt, Bitlis, Bingöl, Batman and Ağrı. 

Saying operations have been ongoing in order to prevent militants from preparing for winter, the military added that explosives, rifles, rocket launchers, mines, ammonium nitrate and materials used to make home-made explosives were confiscated in the operations. 

It also announced that two bomb-laden vehicles had been destroyed in operations in the Savur district of the southeastern province of Mardin and the Ovacık district of the eastern province of Tunceli.  Shelters, depots and tunnels belonging to the PKK were also destroyed, the military added.

Elsewhere, Turkish warplanes conducted airstrikes against PKK targets in the Zap province of northern Iraq. The military said five targets were destroyed in the operation conducted between 5:05 and 5:17 p.m. on Oct. 27 after intelligence was received about PKK sites. 

The statement added that the warplanes returned to their bases safely after the airstrikes.