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Turkish soldier killed in clashes with PKK in Diyarbakir: Army

A member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) (© AFP)

A Turkish soldier has been killed and four others have sustained injuries in clashes with fighters belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in southeastern Turkey, the army says.

“Four of our personnel were wounded in the clashes and one of our soldiers who was badly wounded succumbed to his injuries in hospital and was martyred,” the Turkish army said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

The statement said the incident happened after clashes erupted during an operation to “capture and neutralize” the PKK fighters who had blocked a road linking the district of Lice in the province of Diyarbakir to the province of Bingol.

In a separate incident earlier in the day, approximately 800 Turkish troops launched an attack against the PKK fighters in the district of Silvan in Diyarbakir, killing one of the fighters and injuring another.

Turkey has been launching airstrikes against purported Daesh targets in Syria as well as the PKK positions in Iraq, after a bomb attack left 32 people dead in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc, across the border from the northern Syrian town of Kobani, on July 20. Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack a day after. The PKK later killed two Turkish police officers, saying they had been collaborating with Daesh. 

On Monday, six members of the PKK were killed in skirmishes with Turkish security troopers in Varto district in Turkey’s eastern province of Mus. The Turkish soldiers then engaged in a firefight with the Kurdish PKK fighters, and killed six of them.

Early on Sunday, one Turkish soldier and three PKK members were killed near the town of Kagizman in Turkey’s eastern province of Kars. The fatalities were caused as Turkish army forces mounted an operation to capture the Kurdish militants.

A shaky ceasefire that had stood since 2013 was declared as null by the PKK following the Turkish airstrikes against the group, narrowing chances of the two sides reaching a deal in the near future.

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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