Four civilians killed in PKK attack in Turkey’s southeast
HAKKARİ/BİTLİS
Four civilians were killed and another was wounded in an outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) attack in the southeastern province of Hakkari on July 8. PKK militants stopped two lorries and two automobiles of a convoy carrying engineering vehicles in Hakkari’s Yüksekova district.
The militants killed two civilians and wounded three others in the convoy and also set a vehicle on fire, fleeing after the attack.
Three others were taken to a hospital, according to initial reports. Two wounded civilians succumbed to their injuries while receiving treatment in the hospital, bringing the death toll in the attack to four.
Moreover, a wide-range operation was launched after three PKK militants attempted to infiltrate a police station in Hakkari.
One of the three PKK militants was “neutralized” and an operation is ongoing to apprehend the other two, according to a statement by the Hakkari Governor’s Office.
In a separate attack, PKK militants detonated a hand-made explosive while a truck was passing and one civilian was wounded as a result in the eastern province of Tunceli on July 8.
The attack occurred on the fifth kilometer of the Pülümür-Erzincan highway at 7:00 p.m. One man was wounded and taken to hospital for treatment, as a number of security forces and ambulances were dispatched to the scene following the attack.
Elsewhere, two Turkish soldiers were killed and another soldier was wounded when PKK militants detonated a roadside bomb laid in the eastern province of Bitlis.
Authorities have launched a wide-scale operation in the region, while the treatment of the wounded soldier is ongoing in Tatvan State Hospital.
Meanwhile, four PKK militants were killed in air operations on July 9 in the eastern province of Ağrı. The militants were killed in two separate air raids conducted by F-16 fighter jets and military helicopters in the western part of Mount Tendürek.
Elsewhere, five PKK militants reportedly surrendered to security forces near a Turkey-Iraq border gate in the Silopi district of the southeastern province of Şırnak.
