SIRNAK, Turkey
Three people were killed and seven wounded, including two police officers, in clashes between security forces and members of the outlawed PKK in Silopi district of Turkey’s southeastern Sirnak province on early Friday, local officials said.
"In operations against the members of the separatist terrorist organization [PKK], two police officers were wounded, three killed and five injured," the provincial governor’s office said in a statement.
The statement said police launched an operation at 05.30 a.m. on Friday against PKK members in Baris neighborhood in Silopi, near the border with Iraq. The operation included closing ditches dug on the side streets in order to block police from entering the area.
After police arrived at the scene with an armored earth digger, suspected PKK supporters opened fire on officers with long-range rifles.
The ensuing clashes, which lasted four hours, resulted in the killing of three people, local sources said. The identities of those killed remain unclear.
The governor’s office accused the attackers of previous misconduct, including disrupting the public order, endangering the personal and property safety of district residents, setting up barricades equipped with mines and improvised explosives, digging ditches, and attacking security forces.
One of the wounded police officers remain in critical condition at hospital, as security forces continue to take measures in the city.
