Two in custody in connection with bombing

MERSIN/ŞIRNAK - Anatolia News Agency

DHA Photo

Two suspects were taken into custody in Mersin today in connection with the Aug. 20 bombing attack in Gaziantep.

As a result of the Gaziantep Police Department’s inquiry following the car-bombing in Gaziantep, in which nine were killed and 69 injured, the Mersin Police Department’s anti-terrorism branch took M.H and M.A into custody in the city center. The two suspects were sent to Gaziantep for questioning.
Meanwhile it was reported that five suspects, including the driver of the towtruck that had delivered the bomb-laden car to Gaziantep, were being questioned at Gaziantep Police Headquarters.

Six PKK militants killed in operations

Six Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants who fled to Namaz Mountain in Şırnak following an attack on a police station have been killed in a security operation. The militants attacked Şırnak’s police station with rockets Aug. 20, wounding one policeman. After the attack a security operation supported by air forces was launched to catch the militants, who fled to Namaz Mountain. After a clash between security forces and 10 militants yesterday, 6 militants were found dead. Operations in the region continue.

Meanwhile, a PKK member who was believed to have been involved in an armed attack in the southern province of Hatay’s Erzin district last week was found dead in the Amanos Mountains on Aug. 21. Special operation teams from the Hatay Provincial Gendarmerie Command conducted a large-scale search in the region to arrest PKK members who had organized an armed attack on the Erzin District Police Office and dwelling houses belonging to the Governorate and fled after injuring two police officers last week.

In the search the teams located the body of one of the attackers in the Amanos Mountains, in the eastern part of the district’s village of Başlamış. Authorities located the body by following traces of blood left by the injured PKK member as he fled into the mountains. The body was sent to Adana’s Forensic Medicine Institution for an autopsy.