Three Turkish soldiers killed in PKK clash in Turkey’s Diyarbakır

DİYARBAKIR

Three Turkish soldiers were killed and two others were wounded in a clash with outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on May 31, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported. 

The clash occurred during operations launched by 10,073 security forces officers in six different districts. 

Five soldiers were wounded in the clash, but three of them succumbed to their injuries in the Selahaddin Eyyubi State Hospital, where they were taken to for treatment.

Two PKK militants were also killed and one was wounded during the clashes.

The two wounded soldiers’ treatments have been ongoing amid an operation to apprehend the PKK militants.

Early on May 31, six soldiers and one village guard were wounded during another clash with the PKK in Diyarbakır’s Lice district. The wounded security forces officers were taken to the same state hospital.

Meanwhile, Turkish jets have hit PKK targets in northern Iraq, the Turkish military said in a written statement. Three PKK militants were “neutralized” and two caves and weapon artilleries were also destroyed by the Turkish jets.

Authorities use the word “neutralized” in their statements to imply the militants in question were either killed, wounded or captured. 

On May 30, five PKK militants surrendered to the Turkish security forces in the southeastern province of Şırnak, the Turkish General Staff said in a statement.      

It said one of them was escaping from the PKK in the Uludere district, while the other four surrendered in the Silopi district after they escaped from a PKK camp in northern Iraq.      

In other anti-terror operations, security forces seized 406 anti-aircraft gun cartridges and four RPG-7s (rocket-propelled grenades) in a PKK hideout in the southeastern province of Hakkari’s Yüksekova district.      

Elsewhere, in Diyarbakır’s Hani district, three shotguns and 127 kilograms of hashish (280 pounds) were seized, a statement said.