Two police officers, seven ISIL militants killed in major operation in southeastern Turkey

DİYARBAKIR

AA Photo

Two police officers and seven Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants were killed on Oct. 26 in a major operation in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş told reporters in Istanbul that 12 ISIL militants were captured in the operation while five police officers were wounded. 

“The operation started at 4 a.m. as a result of intelligence sharing from different intelligence sources.

Unfortunately, when our police officers were breaking the doors with a sledgehammer using a routine method, a booby trap planted around the house was set off unexpectedly, and two of our police officers were martyred. Seven Daesh [ISIL] militants were killed during the operations in around three or four houses.

Twelve militants were captured alive. Apart from the two martyred police officers, we have five wounded officers,” Kurtulmuş said.

Police organized simultaneous operations on 17 houses suspected of harboring ISIL militants at around 4 a.m. on Oct. 26.

Security teams raided a detached house in the Huzurevler neighborhood of Diyarbakır’s Kayapınar district as part of the operation. 

As soon as the police entered the compound, militants detonated a remote-controlled explosive previously placed in the house’s garden, killing the two officers and wounding five colleagues. The injured officers were transferred to nearby hospitals. 

“This was an important operation... we can say we have neutralized a major Daesh cell,” said Kurtulmuş, using an Arabic name for ISIL. “We are trying to determine any links with cells in other cities.”

Two policemen, identified as Gökhan Çakıcı, 22, and Sadık Özkan, 25, succumbed to their wounds, while five other officers were being treated at Dicle University Medical Faculty Hospital. 

An immediate ceremony was held for the two police officers in Diyarbakır.

Çakıcı’s body was sent to his hometown of Çorum on Oct. 26, hours after his death during the operation. He was laid to rest in the Dodurga district of Çorum. His brother, Ersin Çakıcı, also a member of the riot police, went to the mosque hugging the coffin. 

The seven deceased militants and 12 militants captured alive were all Turkish citizens, according to state-run Anadolu Agency. Police are focusing on whether they have any link with the recent ISIL bombings in Ankara, Suruç and Diyarbakır. 

The body of Özkan was expected to be sent to the southern province of Adana for burial as his family lives in the Tufanbeyli district of Adana. He began his job two years ago and was single, according to media reports.