Food and water was running scarce in some Diyarbakir districts, while shopkeepers kept shutters closed in protest at operations, residents said.
Advertisement
Christmas Eve Forecast: Record-shattering warmth today
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in some parts of the country, but in others it feels more like a typical spring day. Green Christmas wins out this year with record-breaking temperatures making for a holiday that could get Heat Miser singing.
Some 500 civilians including children were removed from their houses in Silopi a town under curfew in southeastern rnak province to safe spots by security forces on December 22.
Two Arrested In Latest Counter-Terror Raids In Western Sydney
A police source told the ABC that the Merrylands home of Salihy raided this morning was also raided earlier this month. Police say their investigation disrupted the terror plot.
“The civilian death toll is likely to rise steeply in the coming days”, HRW warned, citing “unprecedented military deployments to the region” and shelling of whole neighborhoods by Turkish military.
The operation – which has targeted the towns of Cizre and Silopi in Sirnak province, as well as a neighbourhood in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the region – began on Wednesday, according to the army. Police were called in and used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds.
She maintained to ignore or cover up the plight of the Kurds “would only confirm the widely held belief… when it comes to police and military operations against Kurdish armed groups, there are no limits – there is no law”. It said those actions, and those of the government security forces, prevent medical personnel from reaching those who have been wounded. The pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) said 27 civilians were killed on Tuesday and the Human Rights Association, an NGO, told the DPA news agency on Saturday that civilians who had not fled the city were being killed by rockets and tanks. The PKK first launched its insurgency fighting for an independent Kurdish state in 1984. The three-decade conflict between Turkish security forces and the PKK rebels have claimed the lives of more than 30,000 people. Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu suggested there would be no let-up in the campaign. Turkish police killed two female “terrorists” in a pre-dawn raid Tuesday on a cell of suspected militants in Istanbul, media reports said.
Advertisement
A prosecutor opened an investigation against HDP leader Selahattin Demirtas, two other HDP lawmakers and two senior Kurdish politicians. Turkey and Russia have been at odds since Ankara downed a Russian jet last month saying it violated its airspace. Turkey, which considers the PKK a terrorist organization, has vowed to “cleanse” the country of the rebels.
