Three killed in separate PKK attacks

MARDİN/ŞIRNAK

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Three police officers were killed while eight security officials were wounded in three separate attacks by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on April 16 and 17 amid ongoing security operations in a number of Turkey’s southeastern provinces. 

PKK militants launched a rocket attack against an armored police vehicle passing through Vatan Street in central Şırnak and injured three police officers.

All three were transferred to the nearby Şırnak State Hospital, where police officer Hüseyin Danacı, 28, succumbed to his wounds. The other officers are reportedly in good condition. 

A funeral ceremony was held for Danacı at the 23rd Gendarmerie Border Division Command on April 17. His body was later sent to his hometown of Kayseri in Central Anatolia. 

Anti-terror operations have been ongoing in Şırnak since March 14 and an additional operation has been launched to apprehend the April 16 attackers.

Two soldiers were wounded when the armed forces launched a security operation upon receiving intelligence that PKK militants arrived in the Karakurt area of northeastern Kars province’s Sarıkamış district early on April 17.
 
In a separate attack, special operations police Sinan Kunduracı was killed in Hakkari’s Yüksekova district at 3 p.m. on April 17, while a soldier was wounded. 

According to reports, two other soldiers were wounded as clashes erupted in northeastern Kars province. 

Later in the day, one police officer was killed while three others were wounded as militants detonated an improvised explosive device during the passage of policemen in Nusaybin’s Abdulkadir Paşa neighborhood in southeastern Mardin province. The wounded policemen are being treated at Nusaybin State Hospital, according to reports. 

Meanwhile, 15 PKK militants were killed by security operations in different operations across southeastern provinces of Şırnak, Mardin and Hakkari on April 16, according to a statement by Turkish Chief of Staff. 

In the statement released on its official website, the army said some seven militants were killed in Nusaybin, six were killed in Şırnak’s center and Aslanbaşer district, while two others were killed in Hakkari’s Yüksekova. A total of 633 militants were killed so far in all three provinces combined, the army added. 

Fresh curfews are still being declared in the region, as Diyarbakır’s Silvan is has been put under repetitive curfews since April 14.