Death toll in PKK attack in Turkey’s southeast rises to five

DİYARBAKIR

The death toll from an outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) bomb attack that targeted a police vehicle driving near an excavation site at Dicle University in the Sur district of the southeastern province of Diyarbakır has risen to five. 

Four police officers were killed and two others were wounded on Jan. 16 in the bomb attack. An injured soldier later succumbed to his wounds in a hospital on Jan. 19. 

It was revealed that the killed soldier, Faruk Demir, 24, from the Central Anatolian province of Nevşehir, had been married for one year. His funeral was later sent to his hometown. 

Meanwhile, the medical treatment of a wounded soldier has been ongoing. 

The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) announced that a total of 78 PKK militants were “neutralized” in operations conducted last week in eight provinces including, the southeastern provinces of Şırnak, Hakkari, Mardin and Diyarbakır and the eastern provinces of Tunceli, Bitlis, Ağrı and Iğdır. 

“Neutralize” is a euphemism used by the military to denote killed or incapacitated militants.

Another operation against the PKK has been launched in the rural areas of the southeastern province of Adıyaman. Security forces previously determined a group of PKK militants via drones in an area near the Akçakalı village and declared the area as a special security zone on Jan. 13 for 15 days, where civilians weren’t allowed in the area and drones were used to keep the area under surveillance. 

The area was then bombed by Turkish warplanes that took off from Diyarbakır with the support of gendarmerie forces and special forces. The security operation in the area has been ongoing while a fire that erupted after warplanes bombarded the area was extinguished by fire brigades.