Footage of air raid being examined, Erdoğan says

ISTANBUL

AA photo

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said video recordings of the air raid that killed 35 civilians were being examined today.

Erdoğan talked to journalists after Friday prayers, saying they had a four-hour-long surveillance footage showing the air raid and it was being examined as part of an investigation into the killings.

Erdoğan said a group of smugglers and mules had been spotted by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and were thought to be members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) infiltrating Turkey with heavy weaponry.

"There were criticisms towards the military for lack of UAV utilization," Erdoğan said, referring to the outrage following a PKK raid on a military outpost in Hantepe, where the PKK had taken the outpost under fire with anti-aircraft guns. It was later understood the PKK had dismantled the large weapons and carried the pieces on mules into Turkey.

"Intelligence personnel thought the mules were carrying weapons, and acted to prevent another attack like Hantepe," Erdoğan said.

Erdoğan said he understood smugglers usually traveled in groups of five to 10 people so the large number of people in this specific group increased suspicions they were militants.