PKK attacks kill one Turkish policeman, injure two soldiers
At least one Turkish policeman has been killed and two army soldiers injured in separate attacks carried out by members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the troubled southeastern part of the country.
A police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said PKK militants sprayed a police car with bullets in Batman Province on Tuesday, triggering an exchange of gunfire.
A militant was killed during the firefight while a policeman sustained grave gunshot injuries. The officer later succumbed to his wounds in a nearby hospital.
Meanwhile, security forces arrested a PKK member following the clashes, launching an operation to hunt down another Kurdish militant.
Separately, two army troopers were injured when PKK militants launched an attack on a military base in Uludere district in Turkey’s southeastern province of Sirnak on Tuesday.
The developments came a day after at least five Turkish police officers sustained injuries when a bomb explosion ripped through their patrol vehicle in Sirnak Province.
Security sources, requesting not to be named, said PKK members had planted a bomb on the highway linking the districts of Idil and Cizre in the province, and set it off as the police car passed by on Monday.
Turkey has been launching airstrikes against purported Daesh targets in Syria as well as PKK positions in Iraq, after a Daesh bomb attack on July 20 left 32 people dead in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc, which lies across the border from the northern Syrian town of Kobani.
A shaky ceasefire that had stood since 2013 was declared null by the PKK following the Turkish airstrikes against the group, narrowing chances of the two sides to reach a deal in the near future.
Reports say over 60 Turkish soldiers have been killed in clashes with PKK militants over the past weeks.
Some observers have expressed doubt about Turkey's intentions in the airstrikes. They say Ankara, which already stands accused of having supported Daesh, cannot be serious in the fight against the terrorist group.
Turkey, they say, is more inclined to target the PKK, which Ankara regards as its number one enemy.
The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s. The conflict has left tens of thousands of people dead.
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