PKK kills soldier, attacks on Diyarbakır airport
DİYARBAKIR
AA photo
Militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) killed one soldier and wounded three others in a roadside bombc attack in Hakkari on Aug. 28, one day after firing rockets at the airport in Turkey’s main southeastern city of Diyarbakır.The bomb attack came when the soldiers were trying to diffuse a roadside bomb seen during routine controls on the highway connecting Hakkari to Van. An operation was launched in the area after the attack against the militants.
The rocket fire on Diyarbakır airport sent passengers and staff scrambling for shelter. There were no casualties.
Four rockets were fired at a police checkpoint outside the VIP lounge, and passengers and staff were taken inside the terminal building for safety, Doğan news agency said. The attack happened not long before midnight on Aug. 27.
Broadcaster NTV said the rockets landed on wasteland nearby. There were no casualties and no disruption to flights, Diyarbakır governor Hüseyin Aksoy told the news channel.
Also yesterday, two Turkish soldiers were wounded in a PKK attack in Hakkari.
The PKK militants attacked members of the security forces during an operation in the Samanlı and Cedikan regions near the Iraqi border.
The Turkish forces responded with gunfire and carried out an artillery and tank attack on PKK targets. Seven militants were killed and two other were wounded in the response, according to security sources.
Five village guards wounded in Siirt
Elsewhere, five village guards were wounded by a PKK roadside bomb in Turkey’s southeastern Siirt province.
PKK militants detonated the device on the Siirt-Şırnak road as village guards passed by.
Five guards were wounded and taken to Eruh State Hospital.
The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU -- resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July last year, since when more than 600 security personnel have been killed, as well as around 7,000 PKK militants, according to official data.