News / Turkey

Turkish soldier killed in PKK militant attack

Sunday, 24 January 2016 10:10 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 24 January 2016 10:11 AM ]

People carry the coffin of Turkish police officer Musa Yuce during his funeral in the Sur district of the southeastern province of Diyarbakir on January 4, 2016. ©AFP

A Turkish soldier has been killed when militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) launched a surprise attack on government forces in the country’s volatile southeastern province of Sirnak.

The Turkish Armed Forces said in a statement that the trooper sustained serious gunshot wounds on Saturday, when PKK members mounted an ambush in the town of Cizre, located about 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) southeast of the capital, Ankara.

The unnamed soldier later succumbed to his injuries in a local hospital.

The statement further said seven PKK militants were also killed during separate mop-up operations against the Kurdish fighters in various regions of Sirnak Province.

A man walks along a road damaged in the fighting between government troops and PKK militants in the southeastern Turkish town of Silopi on January 19, 2016. ©AFP

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.

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

After the bombing, the PKK militants, who accused 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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