Turkish security forces killed 11 Kurdish militants in clashes near the borders with Syria and Iraq, while one soldier was killed in a firefight elsewhere in southeast Turkey, state authorities said on Friday.
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It said two Turkish soldiers were killed by an improvised explosive device on a road near the town of Lice, while another soldier was killed in clashes in Van Province.
One sergeant has been martyred and three other security personnel wounded in Turkey’s eastern Van province in a clash with PKK terrorists.
The deaths were the latest in a new wave of unrest that has rocked Turkey’s mainly Kurdish regions since a two-year-old PKK truce fell apart in July, leaving over 150 members of the security forces and hundreds of suspected militants dead.
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Hurriyet newspaper reported on Friday that a few 10,000 residents had fled the battered town of Silvan, where local MPs have warned of dire shortages of water, food and electricity. Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Şırnak deputy Ferhat Encü told reporters that members of the Turkish security forces threw the bomb that killed Yiğit. A round-the-clock curfew remained in force in three neighborhoods in the town of Silvan for an 11th consecutive day, even after security forces regained full control of the areas after operations targeted PKK terrorists, security sources said. The ruling party, which won a resounding victory in the election, has vowed to keep up the battle until the PKK disarms and fighters withdraw from Turkey.
