Cannabis fields destroyed in anti-PKK operation in Lice

A similar raid in early June was carried out and some 1 million cannabis roots planted in the UNESCO-protected Hevsel garden in Diyarbakır’s Sur district were seized over the course of a week-long operation conducted by around 450 police officers.

Meanwhile, a curfew was declared in some 39 villages in the Lice, Hazro and Kocaköy districts of Diyarbakır early on June 23 as part of the counter-terror operations in the area.   

Lice was one of the districts where the TSK was currently conducting a wide-scale rural operation against PKK militants. Some 5,000 security personnel, including gendarmerie and police special operation teams, are involved in the operation, which is also supported by aerial raids carried out on an almost daily basis.
 
According to a statement by the TSK, PKK targets in northern Iraq’s Sinat-Haftanin and Metina regions as well as in rural areas of Lice were hit by Turkish jets.

The statement said some five targets determined to be PKK shelters and control points, some with militants present inside, in northern Iraq were struck between 12:21 a.m. and 12:53 a.m.

Aerial strikes were also carried out in rural areas of Lice between 7:40 p.m. and 9:50 a.m.  

Meanwhile, a leading PKK figure, Murat Karayılan, issued a statement, saying that if panels of trustees were appointed to municipalities of the now-resolved Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), they would directly attack those trustees. 

Karayılan’s statements came as the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been preparing for a new legislation that would enable appointing panels of trustees to municipalities that are found to be providing financial and logistic support to the PKK.

“If they seize the municipalities, we will aim at whoever was appointed to be mayor. I am stating this openly. I mean now, they want to expand the war and are imposing this on us. Of course we will give the required answer,” said Karayılan.