PKK kidnaps four people in Turkey’s southeast

Hakkari Governor Cüneyit Orhan Toprak confirmed that PKK militants intercepted a civilian vehicle near Doğanlı village in the province’s Çukurca district.

They abducted two sergeants and two civilians, Toprak said.      

Security forces conducted an aerial-supported operation to apprehend the PKK militants responsible for the incident.

Recently, Çukurca has been a main scene for numerous operations against the PKK.


Kidnappings in Syria

Separately, the Democratic Union Party (PYD) has abducted 10 elderly people as leverage to force their grandchildren to join militants in Afrin, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency has claimed. 

The ages of the abducted people range from 60 to 75, Anadolu cited local sources as saying. 

Turkey says the PYD is a branch of the outlawed PKK, which has escalated its attacks in Turkey since the summer of 2015. 

The elderly people from the villages of Juweyk and Istaru first tried to run away to a forested area upon rumors that they would be kidnapped, the agency said. 

However, 10 people were later abducted, the agency claimed. 

Anadolu also claimed a group of young people were held by the PYD in an industrial zone on the road to Afrin from Raju. 

Turkey launched the Euphrates Shield cross-border operation on Aug. 24 to back Syrian opposition forces, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), in their fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). 

Turkish soldiers entered the Syrian town of Jarablus on the first day of the operation before they continued to expand their offensive to rid the area of both ISIL fighters and the PYD, which has been an international partner in the fight against ISIL but which is viewed with anathema by Turkey.