PKK militants hide explosives inside policeman’s belongings

İZMİR – Doğan News Agency

DHA photo

Outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants, who had planned a bomb attack targeting a ceremony on Nov. 10 in İzmir, hid the explosives inside a truck carrying the belongings of a police officer who was moving his house from Diyarbakır in the southeast to the Aegean city, according to a police report. 

Three PKK militants were detained on Nov. 10, on the 77th anniversary of the death of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, for planning a bomb attack in İzmir.

İzmir counter-terrorism police detained the militants, who had been followed since July, as they were heading to a forested area to collect explosives they had hidden there, including 17.5 kilograms of C-4 plastic explosives and 10 hand grenades, daily Hürriyet had reported. 

Fresh police reports said the militants utilized people working at a transport company, who would carry the household belongings of an unidentified police officer as a way to bypass road controls. 

Militants took possession of the explosives, which were hidden inside two wheat sacks, when the truck arrived in İzmir, the reports said. 

Later, the explosives, reinforced by additional fertilizers, were hidden in the forest area.

Five people, including two females, were detained for supporting the suspected attackers.