Death toll rises to four as PKK kills three in Şırnak, Diyarbakır

ŞIRNAK/DİYARBAKIR

DHA Photo

The death roll has risen to four after the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) killed three soldiers in two different attacks in the southeastern provinces of Şırnak and Diyarbakır while a fourth soldier died earlier on Feb. 21 due to injuries sustained in an earlier attack. 

Three soldiers were wounded during anti-PKK operations in the Sur district of Diyarbakır on Feb. 21, the announcement said. Two of the soldiers were in critical condition. 

“Our heavily injured comrades-in-arms could not be saved despite all efforts,” the Army said, adding that they succumbed to their wounds at 12:55 p.m.

The treatment of the third soldier is continuing.

A third soldier was killed at 11:46 a.m. on Feb. 21 after sustaining injuries in an armed attack by the PKK in Şırnak’s İdil district, which was subjected to a round-the-clock government curfew last week.

Meanwhile, a wounded succumbed to his wounds at the Gülhane Medical Academy (GATA) in Ankara, three days after sustaining injuries in an outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) attack in Diyarbakır. 

The soldier, identified as 21-year-old gendarme Oğuz Arslan, was wounded in Diyarbakır’s Lice district on Feb. 18, when PKK militants killed six soldiers by detonating a previously-installed explosive during the passage of an armored military vehicle.

Arslan, who was driving the vehicle, was brought to Diyarbakır Military Hospital and then transferred to GATA in the nation’s capital. 

Once notified of the incident, Oğuz’ father, Dündar Arslan, a farmer in the Söke district of Aegean Aydın province, went to Ankara to accompany Oğuz during his treatment. The family was notified of the soldier’s death early on Feb. 21. 

The Turkish Armed Forces also released a written statement announcing the soldier died at 3:15 a.m. on Feb. 21.

Arslan’s funeral is set to be held in Söke’s Bağarası neighborhood on Feb. 21.