PKK attacks kill four in Turkey’s east

MARDİN/VAN

AA photo

Three police officers and one civilian have been killed in separate attacks by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the southeastern province of Mardin and eastern province of Van, respectively.

Three police officers were killed on June 25 in a PKK attack in the Kızıltepe district of Mardin.

PKK militants remotely detonated an explosive placed on a motorway during the passing of an armored police vehicle carrying special operations police.

The identities of the three police officers killed in the attack were not yet known. 

Reinforcements have been deployed to the scene and an operation has begun in the region to apprehend the PKK militants.

In the second incident, one civilian was killed and two others were wounded after being caught in an exchange of fire between police officers and PKK militants in the İpekyolu district of Van. 

The civilian was killed when the PKK militants fired at officers with long-barreled weapons after they carried out a rocket projectile attack on an armored police vehicle as it was advancing toward a PKK barricade formed by municipality construction machines.

The police launched a wide-scale operation in the area to capture the militants.