Explosion hits military vehicle in Turkey’s east

TUNCELİ – Doğan News Agency

DHA photo

Suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) detonated an explosive placed on a road in the eastern province of Tunceli as a military vehicle was passing, but no casualties were reported.

The explosive placed on the Tunceli-Elazığ road link exploded during the passing of a military vehicle early on Aug. 13. A military vehicle and a civilian vehicle were damaged as a result of the explosion, which also created a four-meter-deep hole in the road.

Reinforcements were deployed to the area, while an operation to apprehend the militants has begun.

Meanwhile, a civilian was wounded in clashes when PKK militants attacked a military post with a rocket-propelled grenade in the Şemdinli district of the southeastern province of Hakkari early on Aug. 13.

The PKK’s attack started at 6:30 a.m. on the Durak Gendarmerie Post, 13 kilometers away from Şemdinli’s center. An exchange of fire took place after the attack. 

Şadi Töre, a person who was living near the military post, was injured in the clash.  

PKK members set a bus on fire in Erciş district in the eastern province of Van after evacuating the passengers late Aug. 12. 

A passenger bus traveling from Erzurum to Van was stopped in the Ekiciler neighborhood near Erciş district at 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 12 by PKK members. The bus was set on fire after all passengers were evacuated.  

Seven people, alleged members of the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H), the PKK’s youth group, were also detained in the Black Sea province of Samsun on Aug. 13 in operations. 

One police officer was also wounded after unknown assailants opened fire on a police control point in Mersin’s Anamur district late Aug. 12.

PKK militants launched attacks on military outposts in eastern Turkey overnight, leading to the deaths of seven PKK militants in clashes with security forces, the Turkish Armed Forces said Aug. 13. 

In the southeastern town of Silopi in Şırnak, near the borders with Iraq and Syria, PKK militants opened fire with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades on a military base, triggering a firefight in which four militants were killed, the General Staff said in a statement. 

The PKK also launched similar simultaneous attacks on the evening of Aug. 12 on a military base and police station in the town of Diyadin in Ağrı province, near the Iranian border, with three militants dying in the subsequent clash, it said.

Meanwhile, the army said a total of 390 PKK militants have been killed in airstrikes against the group’s bases in northern Iraq since July 24. More than 400 PKK militants have been injured, 150 seriously, in airstrikes which were conducted by over 120 fighter jets.

The PKK says the number of killed militants is much lower.