Two police officers, two PKK militants killed in a gun attack in Turkey’s south

ADANA – Doğan News Agency

DHA photo

Two police officers were killed in a gun attack on a police station in the southern province of Adana which also left two militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) dead.

Around eight PKK militants carried out an armed attack early July 31 on the Pozantı Police Department with long-barreled guns. An armed conflict ensued when police officers responded to the fire.

Police officers İsa İpek and Serdar Kazar were killed in the attack while two PKK militants who reportedly entered the building were also killed. 

Adana Gov. Mustafa Büyük said the killed PKK militants had previously been sought for being members of the organization.

Two Kalashnikovs, one gun and four hand grenades were seized from the dead militants. In addition, an explosive apparatus was found on the body of one of the militants. Bomb disposal experts were called in and were able to successfully defuse it.

Following the attack, the other PKK militants fled the scene.

Security forces have taken security measures to apprehend the fleeing PKK militants along the Pozantı-Adana-Tarsus motorway.

Later in the day, three soldiers were wounded as PKK members detonated a bomb that was planted on the road in Diyarbakır’s Hani district. 

The bomb was detonated with a remote control as a military convoy was passing over a road, injuring the three soldiers. 

A day earlier, a worker was killed and a village guard was wounded in northeastern Turkey as the worker was repairing a railway following a bomb attack against a freight train, officials said.

“The railway worker [Necdet İnanç, 64] was shot in the head as he found himself in the middle of the clash [between security forces and militants],” state-run Anadolu Agency reported Adem Ünal, the governor of the province of Kars, as saying. 

“The village guard [Mehmet Çelik, 45] was rushed to the Sarıkamış State Hospital,” he added.
Ünal said an operation was under way in the area “to catch the terrorists.”