Two soldiers killed in PKK attack in Turkey’s Diyarbakır

DİYARBAKIR – Doğan News Agency

Two soldiers were killed in an attack by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on Aug. 1. 

The incident happened between the Lice and Kulp districts of the province. The PKK militants detonated a previously placed bomb on the road with a remote control just as an armored military vehicle was passing by, killing a major and a specialist corporal. 

An extensive operation was launched in the area following the incident. 

“As a part of the counterterrorism operations, during the operation conducted in the north of Diyarbakır province’s Lice district, as a result of terrorists detonating mines/hand-made explosives installed [on the road], two of our fellow soldiers, Gendarmerie Maj. Ümit Çelik and Gendarmerie Specialist Cpl. Erkan Sakal, were martyred,” the Diyarbakır Governor’s Office said in a statement.  

Separately, three PKK militants, of whom one was a woman, were killed on the same day in a drone-backed operation in the eastern province of Tunceli’s Ovacık district, according to an Interior Ministry statement.     

Meanwhile, upon the testimony of a PKK militant captured on July 21 by security forces in the southeastern province of Hakkari’s Yüksekova district, two suspected PKK bombers and 13 people determined to be helping the PKK were detained, Doğan News Agency reported on July 31. 

The information received from a previously captured female PKK militant, identified only by the initials E.Ç., led the officials to two other suspected PKK militants named S.P. and B.B., who were indicated to be preparing for an attack against security officials. 

A statement released by the Hakkari police department said S.P. led them to some 14 kilograms of explosive materials the organization had previously hid to be used for a potential attack. “Upon the other information received [from S.P.], four murder cases committed in our Yüksekova district came to surface. The four murders in question were determined to be planned by E.A. and they were committed by E.A. and an accompanying terror organization member,” the statement said.

“Also, in line with these information, 13 suspects determined to be ‘aiding and abetting’ the terror organization members in our Yüksekova district were detained in simultaneously conducted operations,” it added.