Demirtas also claimed the main aim of Turkey’s recent military operations in northern Syria and Iraq is to prevent Kurdish territorial unity and not to combat ISIL.
Advertisement
The policeman and one civilian passerby named as Osman Caran died of their wounds in hospital overnight, the reports said.
“As a result of an attack by the Separatist Terror Organization three of our courageous personnel… were killed”, the statement said, using the army’s customary title for the PKK, which it never mentions by name.
The government says PKK attacks on Turkey have made peace attempts impossible. Operations are continuing, the army said. “This is not a football game but a fight against terrorism”, a Turkish official told AFP.
Turkey’s military and police have been hit by a number of attacks over the past week following the Daesh-linked suicide bombing in Suruc, Sanliurfa province that killed 32 people on July 20. A ceasefire had been observed between the two sides since the end of October 2012 at the behest of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.
It is also targeting ISIL in Syria but its campaign against Kurdish militants has been most intense.
Speaking on a visit to China, Erdogan spat back at Dermirtas, telling him to “know his place” and referred to the presence of his elder brother Nurettin among the PKK fighters in Iraq.
Security forces were now carrying out damage assessment in the aftermath of the airstrikes, the statement added.
Advertisement
Since then, Turkish security forces have arrested hundreds of people with suspected links to Daesh, the PKK, and leftist groups, detaining over 1,300 people across the country, according to a statement on Wednesday from the Prime Minister’s Office.
