The ongoing clashes between the Turkish Army and PKK militants resulted in the death of more than 600 Turkish security personnel, while the Turkish army killed more than 5,000 members of the PKK in Turkey and northern Iraq.
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Video footage showed the carnage, including a large plume of smoke rising from the area.
Yildirim said in his comments in Elazig that FETO – the government’s name for Gulen’s network – had “handed over its mission” to the PKK.
Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, has denied involvement in the coup attempt that left more than 270 people dead. The scope of the crackdown has unnerved Turkey’s North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies, who fear President Tayyip Erdogan is using the purges to stifle dissent.
Wednesday, a auto bomb exploded outside a police station in the eastern city of Van shortly after 11 p.m. (4 p.m. ET), killing three people, including one officer, according to a senior Turkish official.
On the same day, PKK terrorists carried out another attack in Bitlis, killing six soldiers and wounding five others.
Mahmut Varol, the deputy mayor of Elazig, said vehicles in front of the building had been burned due to the detonation of a auto bomb.
Erdogan, who has come under fire over the massive post-coup crackdown and human rights in Turkey, said his country was facing a battle against both the PKK and the Gulen movement.
Anakar: Turkish prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for 84 university academics suspected of links with US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, blamed by authorities for last month’s failed coup, media reported Friday.
On July 15 evening, Turkish authorities said a military coup attempt took place in the country.
Police found books written by Gulen during a search of the CEO’s offices, media reports said.
Authorities on Thursday ordered the detention of almost 200 people, including leading businessmen, and seized their assets in an operation targeting a Gulen-linked business association. Officials said earlier 146 people were wounded and 14 of them were in serious condition.
Speaking after the attack, Van’s deputy governor Mehmet Parlak said 38 of those injured were civilians while two were police officers.
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Anadolu said the operations have killed more than 7,000 militants in Turkey and northern Iraq but the toll can not be independently verified.
