Four Turkish soldiers killed, 14 wounded in PKK attack in southeast

MARDİN/ŞIRNAK

Captain Alper Kalem was killed on April 30 by the outlawed PKK.

Four Turkish soldiers were killed and 14 were wounded on separate May 1 attacks by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the southeastern provinces of Mardin and Şırnak, according to reports. 

Three soldiers were killed and 14 were wounded during a military operation in the Nusaybin district of the southeastern province of Mardin, the Turkish Armed Forces said in a statement. 

The attack in the town, where a number of neighborhoods are under curfew and operations have been ongoing since March 14, came as the soldiers were detonating a bomb placed by the militants on Nusaybin’s Çağçağ Street. 

Three soldiers, identified as gendarmerie specialized sergeants Serdar Yıldırım, Sinan Oruç and Hakan Duygal, were killed in the attack, according to the official statement by the Chief of Staff.

The wounded soldiers were brought to state hospitals in Nusaybin and central Mardin, according to reports.
In a separate attack on the same day, a soldier was heavily wounded after being hit by a PKK sniper during an operation in Şırnak’s İsmetpaşa neighborhood. 

The injured soldier, whose identity was yet to be disclosed when Hürriyet Daily News went to press, was promptly transferred with an armored ambulance to Şırnak State Hospital, where he later succumbed to his wounds. 

The attack came one day after the army announced that an army captain was shot dead by a PKK sniper in Nusaybin.

Captain Alper Kalem was wounded in clashes that erupted when a group of soldiers were trying to remove bombs on the streets at 7 a.m. local time on April 30.

Kalem was taken to hospital but later succumbed to his wounds.

Meanwhile, in the same neighborhood two police officers and one soldier were injured in a rocket attack on an armored vehicle.

Early on April 30, the military had stated that Turkish warplanes destroyed PKK targets in northern Iraq.

It said four F-16 and 14 F-4 jets carried out the raids on positions in Kandil, Hakkurk and Avasin between 23:00 p.m. and 1:40 a.m. local time.

It added that a pair of F-4 warplanes also carried out two airstrikes on PKK bases in the rural Güneycam area of the southeastern Turkish province of Şırnak.