Three construction workers killed in two days by PKK in Turkey’s Şırnak

ŞIRNAK

Security forces launched an operation on July 3 against outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants who opened fire on road construction workers, killing two and injuring five others earlier the same day in the Uludere district of the southeastern Şırnak province, Doğan News Agency has reported.

The injured workers were taken to hospital after the attack, which took place while they were working on the construction of a road connecting a military unit and the Keltepe base in the Gülyazı village, the local governor’s office stated.

Later in the day, PKK militants attacked another worksite in the southeastern province of Hakkari’s Şemdinli district with rocket launchers, injuring two workers including one severely. The injured workers were conducting drilling work on the Soğuktepe military base.

On July 2, only a day before, another open-fire attack by the PKK in the Şırnak province killed a construction worker and injured another.

The group attacked a worksite where the two laborers were working on the 20th kilometer of the Şırnak-Van highway in southeastern Turkey.

The three PKK militants were killed after security forces conducted an air-backed operation in the region, according to security sources.

In another incident on July 2 in the district of Çaldıran in the eastern Van province, a village guard was killed and another was injured when the PKK militants detonated a hand-made explosive. The village guards, İsmail Deniz and Emrullah Çiçek, were first transferred to the Van Yüzüncü Yıl University Hospital with helicopters, but Deniz succumbed to his injuries in the hospital.

Meanwhile, a soldier was severely injured in another PKK attack on July 3 in the eastern province of Hakkari. The 29-year-old infantry special sergeant Oğuzhan Seze was immediately dispatched to the hospital, but succumbed to his injuries.

Turkish security forces “neutralized” 70 PKK militants nationwide over the course of last week, the Interior Ministry stated on July 3. The authorities use the term “neutralized” to refer to militants who are killed, wounded or captured.

A ministry statement provided information on 774 counter-terrorist operations carried out in the period from June 26 to July 3.

According to the statement, 55 militants have been killed by security forces, while four have been captured alive and 11 have surrendered.

Security forces have also destroyed seven shelters used by militants and 34 roadside bombs.

A total of 129 hand grenades, 65 rifles (including 59 long-barreled rifles) and 2,906 kilograms of materials used for making explosives were also seized in operations.

Among the suspects “with alleged terrorist ties,” 252 suspects with links to the PKK, 15 with links to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), 269 with links to the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) and 12 with links to leftist terrorist organizations have been arrested during this period, the statement further noted.

One of the captured PKK militants was Mevlüde Gündüz, code-named “Rozarin.” Gündüz was captured on July 1 in the southeastern province of Mardin’s Dargeçit by the district police teams.

Found on her was an identity card belonging to her sister. Security officials determined she was providing “assassination training” to other militants in the Kandil mountains, the group’s headquarters in northern Iraq. Gündüz was reportedly in the Dargeçit district exploring areas for possible future attacks on police checkpoints.