Police officer killed, four soldiers, village guard wounded in PKK attacks

BİTLİS/KAHRAMANMARAŞ

A special operations police officer who was injured in an outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) attack in a southeastern Turkish city has succumbed to his wounds, while four soldiers and a village guard have sustained injuries in anti-terror operations in the country’s east. 

Special operations police officer Serkan Yılmaz, who was injured on April 10 during an operation against the PKK in the southeastern province of Mardin’s Nusaybin district, succumbed to his injuries on April 11, less than a day after he was brought to the Gülhane Medical Academy (GATA) for treatment. 

According to reports, Yılmaz will be laid to rest in his home province of Kahramanmaraş in southern Turkey on April 12.

Meanwhile, four soldiers and a temporary village guard sustained injuries in an anti-terror operation in the eastern province of Bitlis’ Hizan district late on April 10. 

Security officers from the Tatvan 10th Commando Brigade and the district gendarmerie command came across a group of suspected PKK militants on Mensur hill in Hizan’s Nazar region and called on the suspects to surrender. 

Reports indicated the militants responded by opening fire and wounded four soldiers and the head of Hizan’s temporary village guard, Ahmet Çelik. The wounded were promptly transferred to Tatvan State Hospital via helicopter while an airborne operation was launched to apprehend the militants.