Four security forces, civilian killed in terror attacks in Turkey’s southeast

ŞIRNAK / DİYARBAKIR – Doğan News Agency

DHA photo

Four Turkish security forces and one civilian have been killed in two separate armed attacks in the southeastern provinces of Diyarbakır and Şırnak. 

One officer and two soldiers were killed in an ambush while Turkish troops were trying to secure a road for a military convoy in the southeastern province of Şırnak early July 30. 

A written statement issued by the Chief of General Staff announced the killing of the three personnel, including one officer and two privates, by the separatist terror organization, the definition the army uses for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). It stated that one guerilla was killed in the ambush. 

It also said unmanned aerial vehicles, choppers and special teams have been sent to the region to eliminate militants.

Helicopters bombed spots where PKK members were stationed, while drones were also used in the operations. 

On late July 29, a police officer and a civilian were killed in a gun attack in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır yet again in an ambush.

Police officer 30-year-old Mehmet Uyar was shot with a long-barreled weapon fired from a car while on patrol. Uyar exited the official police car in which he was conducting a patrol in Diyarbakır’s Çınar district after people asked questions, during which an armed attack on him was conducted. Along with Uyar, civilians Osman Caran and İbrahim Turan were also wounded. 

Uyar and Caran, 51, succumbed to their injuries in the hospital, while Turan’s treatment is continuing. 
A ceremony was held for Uyar at the Diyarbakır Police Department that also included his widow, Nedime Uyar, who was four months’ pregnant.

Speaking at the ceremony, Diyarbakır Chief Police Halis Böğürcü said 13 people had been detained in the incident and that they were continuing to investigate the killing.

Caran was also laid to rest in Çınar on July 30 at a funeral that was attended by the district governor.

Turkey’s military and police have been hit by a number of attacks over the past week following the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)-linked suicide bombing in the Suruç district of Şanlıurfa, which killed 32 people on July 20.

Clashes between the PKK and the Turkish army have intensified in the last 10 days, as the Turkish army has been conducting strikes on PKK targets in northern Iraq.

Meanwhile, a passenger train travelling from Ankara to Tehran was attacked on July 30, in a mine blast thought to have been carried out by the PKK, state-run Anadolu Agency reported Bingöl Gov. Yavuz Selim Köşger as saying. 

The Trans-Asian service was travelling between the Genç district in the eastern province of Bingöl and the Suveren district of the Iğdır province, when it was targeted. 

A mine laid under the tracks was detonated by remote control, causing damage to carriages and the line but the train was able to continue its journey. There were no casualties, Köşger said.