Soldier killed by explosive device in southeast Turkey

DİYARBAKIR - Reuters

The soldier, Musa Sumay, was a married father of two. DHA photo

A Turkish soldier was killed by an explosive device in southeastern Turkey, the first such death since the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) declared a ceasefire a year ago, security sources said March 6.

The PKK called the truce in March 2013 to help bolster peace talks between the Turkish state and their jailed leader, Abdullah Öcalan.

The explosion occurred late on March 5 when the soldier stepped on a device buried in the ground in a remote area in Şrınak province near the Iraqi border, the sources said. 

It was not clear what caused the device to detonate, they said. In the past, PKK militants have used remote-controlled devices to attack troops, or it may have been a land mine placed there previously.

Öcalan, serving a life sentence on İmralı island near Istanbul, and Turkish authorities began negotiations in late 2012 in an effort to end a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people in three decades.