4 Turkish soldiers killed, 4 injured in PKK attack in Hakkari

HAKKARİ - Doğan News Agency

Four soldiers were killed and four others were injured when outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants detonated improvised explosive devices in the southeastern province of Hakkari’s Yüksekova district on Oct. 4.

The injured soldiers were taken to the Yüksekova Public Hospital.

The incident happened between the Susuzkeklik guard post and Aslankaraş base area of the province where PKK militants detonated a bomb previously planted on a road just as an armored military vehicle was passing.

Security forces dispatched many armored vehicles to the region to capture the militants. An extensive operation was launched in the area.

“Four military personnel have been martyred and four military personnel have been injured on Oct. 4, 2017, after an improvised explosive device [IED], planted by members of the separatist terror organization on the road, was detonated while a military vehicle was passing by in the Güvenli position of the Esendere town in our province’s Yüksekova district. The injured personnel’s treatment is continuing in the Yüksekova Public Hospital where they were dispatched to. The investigation regarding the incident is ongoing,” the Hakkari Governor’s Office said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Turkish jets destroyed weapon depots and hideouts used by PKK militants in the Gara region of northern Iraq, the military said on Oct. 4.

According to a statement issued by the Turkish General Staff, the warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting PKK camps in the Gara region on Oct. 3.

The jets destroyed a weapon emplacement, a hideout as well as arms and ammunition depots used by militants, who were believed to have been preparing for an attack.

In a separate incident, PKK militants burned the vehicle of a district head from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on Oct. 3 in the Beytüşşebap district in the southeastern province of Şırnak.

The militants stopped the vehicle belonging to the AKP Beytüşşebap district head Kamil Durmuş on the Şırnak-Beytüşşebap highway at about 9 p.m. and made Durmuş’s nephew Cihat Akdağ, who was using the car at the time, get off. Then, they set the vehicle on fire and fled to the mountainside.

An extensive operation was launched in the area to capture the militants after Cihat Akdağ’s notified security forces.

Separately, police and gendarmerie forces in a joint operation on Oct. 4 detained four PKK militants and three others helping them in the Aegean province of Muğla, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

The suspects were detained and their cars were stopped at a check point in the Seydikemer district.

The militants are alleged to have been planning a suicide attack on a court hearing regarding the case into an assassination attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during the July 2016 coup attempt.