Four Turkish soldiers killed in clashes with Kurdish PKK: ministry
Turkish soldiers participate in an exercise on the border line between Turkey and Syria near the southeastern city of Kilis, Turkey, March 2, 2017. Photo: Reuters
ISTANBUL,— Four Turkish soldiers were killed on Friday in clashes with Kurdish fighters from from Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) near the border with Iraqi Kurdistan, Turkey’s Defence Ministry said on Saturday.
Demiroren News Agency said a military base had been attacked in the mountainous Cukurca district of Turkey’s southeastern Kurdish province of Hakkari in Turkey Kurdistan (Bakur), prompting the Turkish military to respond with a “large-scale” military operation.
“As part of ongoing operations in the Turkey-Iraq border, two soldiers were killed in clashes with terrorists despite all efforts to save them,” the ministry said, adding a total of four soldiers were killed and six wounded.
“Terrorists are under intense fire with the air operation and fire support vehicles in the region,” it said.
On March 16, Turkey’s defense ministry said that two Turkish soldiers were killed and eight others were wounded in a clash with the PKK rebels during operations into Iraqi Kurdistan region.
The PKK took up arms in 1984 against the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to push for greater autonomy in Turkish Kurdistan for the Kurdish minority who make up around 22.5 million of the country’s 79-million population. More than 40,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish rebels, have been killed in the conflict.
A large Kurdish community in Turkey and worldwide openly sympathise with PKK rebels and Abdullah Ocalan, who founded the PKK group in 1974 and currently serving a life sentence in Turkey, has a high symbolic value for most Kurds in Turkey and worldwide according to observers.
The PKK is deemed a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
Copyright © 2019, respective author or news agency, Ekurd.net | Reuters
Comments