TURKEY-KURDS/CLASHES Police fire water cannons to disperse Kurdish militants in southeastern Turkey
Record ID:
141776
TURKEY-KURDS/CLASHES Police fire water cannons to disperse Kurdish militants in southeastern Turkey
- Title: TURKEY-KURDS/CLASHES Police fire water cannons to disperse Kurdish militants in southeastern Turkey
- Date: 6th September 2015
- Summary: CIZRE, TURKEY (SEPTEMBER 6, 2015) (REUTERS) EMPTY STREET ARMED AND MASKED PKK MILITANT WALKING IN BACK STREET
- Embargoed: 21st September 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Turkey
- Country: Turkey
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA7YSW0PCIDQ5FTP23SW2YVNAOG
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Police fired water cannons in the streets of Diyarbakir on Sunday (September 6).
Armoured police vehicles could be seen driving through the streets of southeastern Turkey's largest city while gunfire and explosions rang out.
Chants of pro-Ocalan slogans could also be heard. Abdullah Ocalan is one of the founding members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militant organisation.
Armed police cordoned off part of Diyarbakir as they responded to violence, with plain clothes policemen seen patrolling the streets.
Two policemen were killed and three others injured after fighters from the outlawed PKK fired a rocket propelled grenade during the fighting in predominantly Kurdish Diyarbakir.
The police were attacked when they tried to clear the militants from the Sur district of the city.
Security forces responded with an air-supported operation against the militants, and the governor's office imposed a curfew in the area, ordering all residents to remain indoors.
The clashes are just the latest in a deadly drumbeat of violence to have swept eastern Turkey since July, when a 2-year ceasefire between the PKK and the government collapsed, with both sides blaming each other.
Since then officials say more than 70 members of the security forces and hundreds of Kurdish militants have been killed in almost daily tit-for-tat clashes.
Clashes were also underway in the southeastern town of Cizre, where authorities imposed a curfew on Friday (September 4) in a bid to disrupt the PKK.
Two people were killed in three days in clashes between security forces and suspected PKK militants, according to the town's mayor, Leyla Imret.
Armed militants could be seen strolling through the city's streets.
Leyla Guven, a Pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party MP, was held back by Turkish troops as she tried to enter Cizre.
Clashes between Turkish troops and PKK militants, who have bases in the mountains of nearby northern Iraq, have become a daily occurrence since the ceasefire fell apart, leaving peace negotiations to end the 30-year-old insurgency in tatters.
The Turkish government accuses the PKK of ramping up its attacks and repeatedly breaching the now defunct ceasefire. The PKK, which is pushing for greater Kurdish rights, is on European and U.S. terror lists.
Critics of President Tayyip Erdogan accuse him of using the renewed violence to scare voters away from the Kurdish-focused HDP, which strongly outperformed expectations in June's elections. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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