One Turkish soldier killed in PKK attack: PM

ANKARA

One Turkish soldier was killed on July 20 in a gun attack by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in eastern Turkey, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has stated.

“I pray for God’s grace for our martyred soldier,” Davutoğlu said in a press conference in Ankara, in which he also condemned the terrorist attack, suspected to be staged by a suicide bomber of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Suruç, Şanlıurfa, which killed at least 30.

“[The Kurdish problem-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party] HDP officials should respond to the PKK attack in the same way they responded to the [Suruç] attack,” he added. 

According to the Turkish General Staff, PKK militants fired on gendermarie forces in Adıyaman with long-barrelled guns. One soldier was killed and two others were wounded in the subsequent security operation to detain the militants.

The operation was conducted in a forested area with military reinforcements. Several caves, filled by PKK militants with supplies, were discovered.

Meanwhile, the Turkish military detained an ISIL member trying to cross from Syria into Turkey illegally in the southern province of Kilis.

652 people attempting to cross from Turkey to Syria illegally were detained on the border on July 20.