One police officer killed, three wounded in PKK attack in Tunceli

TUNCELİ – Doğan News Agency

DHA photo

One police officer was killed and three were wounded in an attack by suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the eastern province of Tunceli on Sept. 9. 

PKK militants attacked a security point where police officers were providing security for police lodgings in the Cumhuriyet (Gazik) neighborhood with rocket-propelled grenades and long-barreled weapons at around 8 p.m. An armed clash erupted when the police officers responded to the attack. 

Police officers Aydın Nazillioğlu, Hakan Çalışkan, Sefa Arı and Sanem Gündüz, as well as a civilian woman passing nearby, were wounded as a result of the initial fire and later transferred to nearby Elazığ province after receiving initial treatment in Tunceli, also known as Dersim. 

Nazillioğlu later succumbed to his injuries in hospital.

PKK militants fled to a forested area of the neighborhood in the aftermath of the attack. Meanwhile, security forces have launched an operation to apprehend the PKK militants.