Five soldiers killed in PKK attack in Turkey’s southeast

HAKKARİ

Five soldiers were killed in an attack by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Şemdinli district of the eastern province of Hakkari on July 10. 

Militants detonated a bomb while a military vehicle was passing in the Aktütün region at around midday, Doğan News Agency reported. 

Four soldiers died at the scene, while another was taken to the hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. 

Reinforcements were sent to the scene and an operation was launched to apprehend the militants involved in the attack. 

The attack in Hakkari came hours after a soldier and a village guard were killed in an attack by the PKK in the Erciş district of the eastern province of Van. Ten soldiers and five village guards were also injured in the attack, which was carried out with a bomb-laden car. 

The militants staged the attack on a local gendarmerie post at 12:20 a.m., according to a statement released by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK).

One of the soldiers was critically wounded in the attack. 

The army also launched an operation to apprehend the suspects involved in the attack. 

The attacks on July 10 came after a PKK bomb attack on a gendarmerie post in the Artuklu district of the southeastern province of Mardin on July 9, which left two soldiers and a civilian dead.

The PKK militants, who attacked the post in the district’s Cevizli village with a bomb-loaded vehicle, injured 12 soldiers, the military said in a written statement.

The gendarmerie station and some houses nearby were damaged in the raid.