Police search for suspected PKK bombers in İzmir

İZMİR

Police in the Aegean province of İzmir are searching for two suspected bombers of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) who allegedly arrived in Turkey’s third largest city to stage a bomb attack and fled during a police operation.

Following a tipoff that the suspects arrived in the province three days ago, police carried out an operation to detain them late on Oct. 2 in the Karabağlar district. However, two of the suspects escaped during the raid while seven were detained.

A 440-gram A4-type bomb equipment, one Kalashnikov rifle, one weapon and 18 bullets were also seized by police.

One of two escaped suspects has been identified as Mehmet Demir, born in 1993 and registered to the eastern province of Iğdır. Demir allegedly joined a rural branch of the PKK while he was a student at the Sütçü İmam University in the Mediterranean province of Kahramanmaraş in 2014. The other suspected bomber has been identified as Ahmet Dündar, born in 1980 and registered to the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa.

Police have handed out pictures of the two suspected fugitive bombers, while mobilizing security teams to be on alert to capture them.

Demir was caught in the evening hours at his brother’s house in the Bayraklı neighborhood.

Meanwhile, two soldiers were killed and another was wounded in an attack by the PKK in the Şemdinli district of the eastern province of Hakkari on Oct. 3.

PKK militants detonated a hand-made explosive placed near the Geçkan village during the passing of a military vehicle.

Infantry specialized sergeant Orçun Kubat and private Orhan İrkarlı were killed in the attack while another soldier was wounded. He was transferred to the Hakkari State Hospital, while an operation to apprehend the PKK militants responsible for the attack was ongoing.

In addition, one PKK militant surrendered to security forces in the Agaçdibi village of the province.

Elsewhere, 11 PKK militants were killed in a security forces operation conducted in the Beytüşşebap district of the southeastern province of Şırnak, the governor’s office said in a written statement on Oct. 3, one day after nine other PKK militants been killed in the same region.