Turkish jets hit PKK bases in Iraqi border amid clashes

ISTANBUL

REUTERS photo

Turkish fighter jets hit outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) bases on the border with Iraq late Aug. 19 after eight soldiers were killed in a blast in the southeastern province of Siirt.

F-16 jets which took off from the Diyarbakır 8th Main Jet Base hit PKK bases in the town of Karaçalı on the border with Iraq for around an hour late Aug. 19.

The airstrikes came soon after Turkey was shaken with the reports of an attack in Siirt.

An official ceremony was held for eight soldiers who were killed in an explosion caused by a remotely detonated bomb placed on the road linking Siirt to its district of Pervari during the passing of a military patrolling convoy at around 2:10 p.m. on Aug. 19.

The eight soldiers were identified as Hakan Aktürk from the western province of Burdur, Ferdi Gerekli from the southern province of Adana, Barış Akın from Ankara, Mehmet Halil Barkın from the southeastern province of Şırnak, Recep Beycur from the eastern province of Erzurum, Ömer Erüstün from the southeastern province of Kahramanmaraş, Bahadır Aydın from the western province of Bursa and Emre Kaan Arlı from the northwestern province of Kocaeli. 

A 21-year-old man was killed amid clashes between the outlawed Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H) and security forces in the southeastern province of Şırnak’s İdil district late Aug. 19.

Cabbar Acar, who was working as a pumper at a gasoline station in İdil, was allegedly shot by police firing from an armored personnel carrier as he was leaving a relative’s house. He was gravely injured and succumbed to his injured in hospital. Shop owners in the town who came to work in the morning kept their shops closed after learning that police had killed Acar.

Also on Aug. 19, police in Mardin allegedly shot dead another youth, 19-year-old Ali Akpınar, during protests against heavy-handed action by the security forces in the southeast.

Police were accused of blocking the passage of an ambulance to the scene for four hours.

“Enough. Our home is in mourning, may [President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan’s house also be in mourning,” said the youth’s father, Mehmet Akpınar, who encouraged media organizations to film him next to his son’s blood coagulating on the road.

“For the love of God, a human would send an ambulance. May God not be pleased with you, Erdoğan. You sprayed bullets at a youth and murdered him. Fear God,” he said.

Three PKK militants also opened fire at a military watch box in Siirt on Aug. 19, with no casualties reported.

Some 17 suspects were also detained in an anti-PKK raid in the southern province of Adana.

Elsewhere, assailants set fire to a public bus, which did not have any passengers onboard, with a Molotov cocktail in Şanlıurfa.

Late Aug. 19, two PKK militants were killed in an operation in the southeastern province of Adıyaman while two soldiers were slightly injured. 

The two militants had reportedly been involved in clashes with Turkish security forces on July 21 when soldier Müsellim Ünal was killed, according to Anadolu Agency.

18 PKK militants killed in 2 days in Diyarbakır

Meanwhile, 18 PKK militants were killed in ongoing operations in the Lice and Silvan districts of Diyarbakır in southeastern Turkey over the past two days, Anadolu Agency reported Aug. 19. 

Some 700 members of security forces were involved in operations in Lice where 14 PKK members were killed, while 4 others were killed in Silvan.

Security forces have been accused of committing extrajudicial murders against locals in the two towns, while also indiscriminately firing at buildings and deliberately burning down homes and shops in the districts.