News / Turkey

Five Turkish policemen killed in PKK militant attacks

Thursday, 07 April 2016 8:49 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 07 April 2016 9:11 PM ]

The wife of slain Turkish police officer Musa Yuce grieves over his flag-draped coffin on January 4, 2016 during his funeral after clashes between Turkish forces and PKK militants in the Sur district of Diyarbakir Province. ©AFP

At least five Turkish police officers have been killed and as many injured when Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants carried out three separate attacks in Turkey’s southeastern province of Mardin.

A police chief, identified as Dogan Sakarya, was critically wounded when PKK militants opened fire during a counter-terrorism operation in the Dicle neighborhood of Nusaybin, situated 792 kilometers (492 miles) east of the capital, Ankara, at around 11:40 a.m. (0840 GMT) on Thursday.

The wounded officer later succumbed to his injuries at Nusaybin State Hospital.

Two other policemen, identified as Police Chief Zafer Kurt and Major Ahmet Karaman, lost their lives when PKK militants detonated an improvised explosive device in the same city two hours later.

Additionally, two members of security personnel were killed and five others wounded during a joint operation by gendarmes and special police forces in Nusaybin.

Earlier on Thursday, the Turkish General Staff announced in a statement that Turkish fighter jets had struck PKK positions in the Zap region of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region the previous day.

There were no immediate reports of possible casualties and the extent of damage in the Turkish operation.

Armed female PKK militants man a barricade in the Sur district of Diyarbakir Province, southeastern Turkey, on November 18, 2015. ©AFP

A ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish government collapsed last July and attacks on Turkish security forces have soared ever since.

Ankara has been engaged in a large-scale campaign against the PKK in its southern border region in the past few months. The Turkish military has also been conducting offensives against the positions of the group in northern Iraq and Syria.

A man stands in the room of a house after it was hit by a mortar during clashes between Turkish forces and PKK militants in the Sur district of Diyarbakir Province, southeastern Turkey, on January 3, 2016. ©AFP

The operations began in the wake of a deadly July 2015 bombing in the southern Turkish town of Suruc. More than 30 people died in the attack, which the Turkish government blamed on the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

After the bombing, the PKK militants, who accuse the government in Ankara of supporting Daesh, engaged in a series of attacks against Turkish police and security forces, prompting the Turkish military operations.

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