Militants of the Kurdistan Staff’ Celebration, or PKK, used two tons of explosives to assault the station on a freeway close to the city of Dogubayazit in Agri province, near Turkey’s border with Iran, inflicting in depth injury to the constructing, the regional governor’s workplace stated in a press release.
Advertisement
To briefly describe the situation, the Turkish government recently began to attack the Islamic State and now allows the US to use its air bases in “south-eastern Turkey” (northern Kurdistan) to attack ISIS in Syria.
Turkey’s official Anatolia news agency reported Saturday that some 260 PKK rebels had been killed, with 400 wounded since the raids began.
The statement comes after Iraq on Tuesday defined Turkey’s airstrikes on PKK camps in northern Iraq as “escalation” and “attack on [Iraq’s] sovereignty“.
One local official, Nehro Abdullah, said two women were among six people killed in the raid, which he said completely destroyed several buildings.
Two soldiers were killed and 31 were wounded, four of them seriously, the army said. The members of these networks represent a key threat to Turkey’s internal security.
PKK militants who took part in the operation also launched ambushes on the roads to prevent medical teams reaching the scene before fleeing in the direction of Mount Ararat, it added. Many argue that the government, egged on by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is trying to shore up its base of support by using the anti-Kurdish sentiments of nationalist Turks with a view toward regaining its pre-eminent political position in early elections, which could be held in November.
Violence tied to the PKK, which is fighting for more Kurdish autonomy in the region, has left more than 40,000 people dead since the 1980s. Kandemir, was one of the three Turkish troops that were killed on July 30 when Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK militants opened fire on their convoy in the southeastern province of Sirnak, according to the army.
Turkey’s foreign ministry said the allegations would be investigated in a joint inquiry with the government of Iraq’s Kurdistan.
Turkey’s Kurdish militants have sought cover in neighbouring northern Iraq where the presence of the PKK has long been tolerated in Iraq’s Kurdish-ruled region. However, there are convincing answers to all the above questions, and also to the question as to why Turkey wants to enforce a no-fly zone for Syrian air force across the Syria-Turkey border.
Turkish fighter jets have been bombing the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) bases in the mountains of northern Iraq for a week after Ankara agreed to join the anti Islamic State (ISIS) coalition.
But a recent terror attack in the southeast has drawn attention to the many extremists potentially slipping through the cracks due to gaps in Turkey’s legal system.
“We condemn this bombardment that led to the martyrdom of people from the Kurdistan region and call on Turkey not to bombard civilians again”, Iraqi Kurdish President Massoud Barzani said in a statement.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Friday urged Turkey not to abandon the Kurdish peace process despite an upsurge in tension and violence, AFP reports. The bombing was believed to be the work of Daesh.
Advertisement
“[The] PKK should withdraw from the region so that civilians in the Kurdish region will not be the victims of the clashes”, the statement said.
