Gendarmerie officer killed in eastern Turkey

MUŞ - Anadolu Agency

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A gendarmerie commander was killed in an attack in the Malazgirt district of Turkey’s eastern Muş province July 27, authorities have said.

Armed attackers opened fire on Major Aslan Kulaksız, the commander of the gendarmerie garrison in Malazgirt, while he was traveling with his wife and child in his car.

Muş Provincial Governor Vedat Büyükersoy told Anadolu Agency that Kulaksız succumbed to his wounds at the Malazgirt State Hospital.

Security forces have detained a total of 10 suspects within the scope of the operations.

Following the July 20 suicide bombing in Suruç that killed 32, tensions have risen between the Turkish state and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), with the latter stepping up attacks on police and troops while Turkish jets have targeted the group’s camps and its followers have been rounded up by police anti-terror units.

On July 22, two police officers were found shot dead in southeastern Şanlıurfa province. The PKK had claimed responsibility for the incident.

On July 23, a policeman was killed and a colleague was wounded in a gun attack in Turkey’s southeastern city of Diyarbakır.

A non-commissioned Turkish officer, Yalçın Nane, was killed and two Turkish sergeants were injured when gunfire believed to be coming from the direction of Syria hit uniformed personnel in Turkey’s southern Kilis province on July 23.

The PKK is listed by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU as a terrorist organization.

Turkish security forces have detained 1,050 suspects across 34 Turkish provinces since the nationwide “anti-terror operations” in the country began early July 24, the Turkish Prime Minister’s Office of Public Diplomacy said in a statement July 27.

Most of the suspects allegedly belonged or had links to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the PKK and the far-left Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C).