PKK member confesses murder of locals in Foça

İZMİR - Doğan News Agency

One Turkish soldier was killed and 11 were injured when a landmine exploded as a military bus was passing on a road in İzmir’s Foça district Aug 9. DHA photo

Members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) killed three villagers just before a bomb attack in the Aegean province of İzmir’s Foça district, according the testimony of a PKK member charged in the bombing.

Yunus Çiçek said they killed one of the villagers, Bahri Şirin, because Şirin had seen them when they were hiding in bushes. Then a member of the group killed two other villagers because the villagers had noticed blood spots on him. It was also revealed that a person known as “Syrian Ahmet” prepared false identity papers for the militants, who were ordered not to be caught alive by their leaders.

“Before the attack, we were in Gediz Plain to hide. When we were about to hide in the bushes, one villager saw us. He asked what we were doing there, and we told him that we came to work in a field and were resting over there. Then he went away. This incident happened during the night hours. The next day, the villager who saw us among the bushes approached us. When that happened, Burhan Bozkurt took two or three shots at him. Then Burhan Bozkurt said ‘I am going to bring some water,’ and left us. When he came back, he said he had shot two more villagers since they had seen the blood stains on him. He then came back with water. We put the water in our bags and left the area,” Çiçek said.

On Aug. 9, two soldiers were killed and 12 were injured when a landmine exploded as a military bus was passing on a road in the Aegean province of İzmir’s Foça district.

Meanwhile, Turkish anti-terrorism police killed two PKK members in eastern Turkey on Sept. 23 in an offensive launched after an attack on a hospital emergency service.

The militants were reportedly killed in a clash near Bakacik village of the eastern province of Van, and security officials have said one the terrorists was believed to have staged the emergency service attack on the night of Sept. 22 in which a police officer was killed.