4 security personnel martyred in SE Turkey attacks

By Ozkan Bilgin, Mesut Varol, Ekrem Payan, Hasan Namli, Ahmet Kaplan and Soner Kilinc

SIRNAK, Turkey

Four security personnel, including three police officers and a Turkish soldier have been martyred in three separate PKK terrorist attacks in eastern Turkey, military and police sources said Monday.

Two Turkish police officers were martyred and another was injured in an improvised bomb attack in eastern Van province Monday, police sources, who wished to stay anonymous because they were not authorized to speak with the media, said.

The bomb, planted on a road in the province's Ipekyolu district, was detonated when a police vehicle passed by.

The injured police officer was rushed to a hospital.

Separately, a Turkish soldier, who was seriously injured in an attack in southeastern Sirnak province’s Uludere district, close to the Iraqi border, succumbed to his wounds at the Sirnak State Hospital late Sunday, according to unnamed military sources, who wished to stay anonymous because they were not authorized to speak with the media.

In another incident, a police officer, who got injured in an anti-terror operation against the PKK in Sirnak, also succumbed to his wounds at the Sirnak Military Hospital early Monday, police sources, who wished to stay anonymous because they were not authorized to speak with the media, said.

Also, five village guards and a civilian were injured when a bomb-laden vehicle exploded near a police station in southeastern Diyarbakir province late Sunday, according to the regional governor’s office.

The governor’s office said village guards had tried to stop the PKK’s bomb-laden vehicle on the Lice-Kulp Highway at 10.15 p.m. local time (1915 GMT) Sunday, but two terrorists, who later escaped from the scene, detonated the explosives, injuring the five people.

An operation to nab the fugitives remains ongoing.

The PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and EU – resumed its 30-year armed campaign against the Turkish state in July 2015.

Since then, around 500 security personnel, including troops, police officers, and village guards, have been martyred, and over 4,900 PKK terrorists killed in operations across Turkey and northern Iraq.

*Anadolu Agency Correspondents Hale Turkes and Can Erozden contributed to this story from Ankara.