Second PKK anti-tank gun seized in week in Turkey’s southeast

ANKARA

A second anti-tank gun belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has been seized over the past week in the southeastern province of Hakkari during the operations.

According to the Turkish security sources, the anti-tank guns were provided to the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria by the United States as part of the U.S.-led coalition campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) which started in 2014. However, U.S. sources deny that the U.S. military provided weapons to the YPG. 

A PKK militant was neutralized in Hakkari’s Şemdinli district last week and an anti-tank gun was also seized by commandos. The anti-tank gun was reported to be a Swedish-made M136 AT4 LAW. The same type gun was also seized during a land search in the same area last week.  

The guns might have been given to the PKK by the YPG, according to security sources.

“The seizure of two of these types of guns in a week trigger suspicions that the PKK might have a lot of these guns,” a security official said.