Two soldiers killed in PKK attack in Turkey’s east

BİNGÖL / DİYARBAKIR

DHA photo

Two soldiers were killed and six were wounded on Dec. 21 in an outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) attack in the eastern Bitlis province, Anadolu Agency has reported.

PKK militants detonated a hand-made explosive during the passing of security forces in the rural area of the Ölek village. According to initial reports, two soldiers were killed and six were wounded.

The wounded soldiers were transferred to hospitals in Bitlis and Tatvan.

An air-supported operation against the militants has been ongoing in the region.

Meanwhile, Doğan News Agency reported that two other Turkish soldiers were injured in clashes with PKK militants in the curfew-hit southeastern town of Sur, a district in the Diyarbakır province. The two were wounded on Dec. 21 in Sur on the curfew’s 19th day, after PKK militants shot the two in the hand and the leg, respectively.

Ambulances were unable to access the scene because of intense clashes in the Hasırlı neighborhood of Sur, which has been under a curfew since Dec. 11.

Medical staff managed to take the injured security personnel to the Diyarbakır Public Hospital when clashes ended.

Governors and local governors, in Turkey’s southeastern province in particular, declare curfews to restrict locals from leaving their homes during military operations targeting PKK militants in order to prevent civilian casualties.

In the southeastern province of Mardin, a curfew in Mardin’s Nusaybin district in place since Dec. 14 was increased from what previously appeared to be on four neighborhoods to fifteen.