Eight killed in clashes with PKK in Turkey’s east

VAN

Six soldiers, a police officer and a village guard have been killed in four separate clashes with outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants in the provinces of Van, Hakkari, Ağrı and Şırnak, media reports said on May 25.

The Turkish military said in a statement that three of the soldiers and the village guard were killed in the Çaldıran district of the eastern province of Van during an armed fight with the PKK on May 25. The security personnel had been sent to the region to conduct an examination a day after some PKK militants blocked a road and set three trucks on fires. 
 
On the same day, another soldier was killed in the Şemdinli district of the southeastern province of Hakkari during an operation launched by the 34th Border Brigade Command against the outlawed group. A total of nine PKK militants were killed in the ongoing operations in both of the regions, the military statement added.

Additionally, early on the same day, PKK militants opened fire in a mountainous area of the eastern province of Ağrı’s Dogubeyazıt district, near the Iranian border, killing two soldiers and wounding four others, police sources reportedly said. 

Separately, on May 24, a police officer was killed and two others were wounded during an operation against the PKK in the southeastern province of Şırnak, state-run Anadolu Agency said. 

The killed officer was reportedly a member of the special operations team, according to the source cited by the agency. 

The wounded police officers in the operation in Şırnak have been hospitalized after a clash in the Beytüşsebap district in the Kato mountainous region, the source said.

Moreover, a PKK depot stored with life support materials was seized by gendarmerie forces in the eastern province of Elazığ on May 25.

The underground depot was found in Elazığ’s Karakoçan district following an intelligence with materials, most of which were food, and were destroyed by special teams after the order of a prosecutor.

Meanwhile, eight PKK members were detained as part of an operation in Van on May 25, Anadolu Agency reported.

Police raided 10 different addresses in Van’s Erciş district after receiving intelligence, seizing a number of documents and digital materials during the operation.

Separately, Turkish jets hit PKK targets in northern Iraq early on May 25 following an immediate intelligence. Three PKK militants were “neutralized” in an air operation in the Metina region. An arsenal was also destroyed by the Turkish jets.