One killed, nine injured in PKK attacks in Turkey’s southeast

DİYARBAKIR – Doğan News Agency

Clashes with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) continue in Silvan, a district of the southeastern province of Diyarbakır. AA Photo

One person has been killed and nine others, including four police officers and a child, have been injured in clashes with outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants in multiple provinces in southeastern Turkey.

A taxi driver identified as Mehmet Gündüz, 45, was killed, and five other people, including a police officer, were wounded on Nov. 9 in clashes with PKK militants in Silvan, a district in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır.

A police officer was injured after PKK militants opened fire at security forces escorting a caterpillar filling trenches dug by militants. Three other people identified as Abdulsemet Kesici, 50, Seyfettin Kurt, 44, and Kudbettin Çiçek, 44, were also injured in the clashes, while another person, identified as Mehmet Emin Çiçek, 70, was injured in rocket fire targeted at his home. 

A committee formed of members from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and the Democratic Union Party (DBP) conducted an inspection at the site where Gündüz was killed.

The clashes came on the seventh day of a curfew in the southeastern town, which has been in effect since 5:00 a.m. on Nov. 3 as a pre-emptive measure to protect civilian deaths during anti-terror operations.

In the southeastern province of Mardin, meanwhile, three police officers and a child were wounded in clashes between the PKK’s youth wing and security forces working to open roads closed by the militant group.

Security forces dispatched armored vehicles to Mardin’s Nusaybin district after the outlawed Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H) seized citizens’ cars and lined them up in order to close roads to traffic at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 8. 

A group of masked YDG-H militants arrived at Lozan Street in the Yeşilkent neighborhood and appropriated car keys from drivers. The group also fired at surveillance cameras to avoid being caught by the police. 

While using the cars to close down Lozan Street, the group also built barricades on the side streets of the Yenituran neighborhood. 

Police used armored vehicles to enter the streets and open the roads to traffic. However, clashes erupted when the militants attacked an armored vehicle with an improvised explosive device. 

Three wounded police officers were transferred to the Nusaybin State Hospital for treatment, while 14-year-old Abdulselam Deniz was also injured in the explosion and brought to the same hospital.

In the southeastern province of Hakkari, two children were wounded on Nov. 8 after stepping on a landmine planted by PKK militants on the road connecting Hakkari’s Yüksekova and Şemdinli districts.

In a written statement, the Hakkari Governor’s Office said the children were collecting firewood at Şemdinli’s Korgan village before the explosion. 

“Both children were initially brought to Yüksekova State Hospital and then transferred to Van’s Yüzüncü Yıl University Research Hospital via a military helicopter,” it said.