PKK militant with million-lira bounty on head killed in Turkey’s east

BİNGÖL

An outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant who was sought with a reward of one million Turkish Liras (around $281,000) was among 11 militants killed on June 27 in the eastern province of Bingöl, Doğan News Agency reported on July 3. 

Şahabettin Çotak, code-named “Aşut Star,” was sought with a green arrest warrant and was on the Interior Ministry’s “wanted terrorists list.”

Çotak was reportedly responsible for running the group’s operations in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır.

Meanwhile, three soldiers were injured on July 4 in the Çukurca district of the southeastern province of Hakkari in a PKK attack by rocket launchers. 

“As a result of the attack, three military personnel were injured in a non-life threatening way, and their treatments have started in the Hakkari State Hospital, where they were transferred to,” the local governor’s office said. 

Meanwhile, at least seven militants were “neutralized” in air-supported operations carried out by the Turkish Armed Forces in the eastern and southeastern provinces on July 3.

The authorities use the word “neutralized” to refer to militants who are killed, wounded or captured. 

The military stated that three militants were killed in the Davderal area of the eastern province of Muş on July 3, where they were planning an attack. 

Four more PKK militants were also killed on the same day in an air-backed operation in the Yüksekova district of Hakkari, the local governor’s office said in a statement. The militants had been preparing an attack on Turkish border posts in the region, it added.