News / Turkey

Three Turkish soldiers killed in clashes with PKK

Thursday, 28 April 2016 10:13 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 28 April 2016 10:43 PM ]

Turkish police officers carry the coffin of a policeman during a funeral ceremony in the capital, Ankara, on April 8, 2016. ©AFP

At least three Turkish soldiers have lost their lives and six others sustained injuries during separate operations against Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants in Turkey’s volatile southeastern province of Sirnak.

An army lieutenant was killed and six soldiers injured on Thursday as Turkish forces launched a large-scale operation in the provincial capital city of Sirnak, situated some 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) east of the capital, Ankara,.

Separately, two Turkish army troopers sustained critical gunshot wounds as a result of clashes with PKK militants in the Gazipasa and Cumhuriyet districts of Sirnak Province.They were transferred to local hospitals, where they succumbed to their injuries later on.

The Turkish General Staff also announced in a statement that six PKK militants were killed in Sirnak Province on Wednesday.

Furthermore, four PKK terrorists died in a Turkish army operation in the city of Nusaybin, situated 792 kilometers (492 miles) east of Ankara.

Turkish soldiers walk during a curfew in the Sur district of Diyarbakir Province on February 26, 2016. ©AFP

A ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish government collapsed in July 2015 and attacks on Turkish security forces have soared ever since.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier this month that 355 members of the Turkish security forces and over 5,000 Kurdish militants have been killed in operations against the outlawed group.

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 and Syria.

The operations began in the wake of a deadly July 2015 bombing in the southern Turkish town of Suruc. More than 30 people died in the attack, which the Turkish government blamed on the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

After the bombing, the PKK militants, who accuse the government in Ankara of supporting Daesh, engaged in a series of supposed reprisal attacks against Turkish police and security forces, in turn prompting the Turkish military operations.

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