TURKEY-KURDS/CLASHES Six killed in separate clashes between PKK militants and Turkish armed forces

Record ID: 142294

  • Title: TURKEY-KURDS/CLASHES Six killed in separate clashes between PKK militants and Turkish armed forces
  • Date: 27th August 2015
  • Summary: CIZRE, TURKEY (AUGUST 27, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE PULLING DOWN SHUTTERS AND RUNNING AWAY VARIOUS OF STREET SCENES MAN FROM SPECIAL FORCES RUNNING VARIOUS OF ARMED MEMBERS OF YGD-H (YOUTH WING OF PKK) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE OUTSIDE HOSPITAL
  • Embargoed: 11th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAEM5UBZJQBBJVN5EPWIYV69DZK
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Six people, including at least four civilians, were killed on Thursday (August 27) in southeastern Turkey as they were caught up in separate clashes between armed forces and militants that have churned the mainly Kurdish southeast and wrecked peace talks.
    A 2 and a half year ceasefire that Turks and Kurds had hoped would bring an end to a three-decade insurgency by the autonomy-seeking Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) collapsed in July after a group close to the rebels shot dead two police officers and Turkey launched strikes against their camps in Iraq and Turkey.
    At least a dozen civilians have been killed in the ensuing violence.
    More than 60 soldiers and police officers in attacks by the PKK and affiliated groups and an estimated 800 PKK fighters have been killed.
    On Thursday, three people were killed in the town of Cizre near the Syrian border after members of the PKK used rocket launchers to attack a military base inside the town.
    Seven people, including a seven-year-old child and three soldiers, were wounded, security sources said.
    The sharp crack of gunfire echoed throughout the town in the hours following the initial attack, Reuters video footage showed. Smoke rose up from areas near the base.
    In Yuksekova, some 300 km (186 miles) from Cizre near the Iraqi border, three other people were killed, a government official said on condition of anonymity.
    One of them was a 32-year-old father of three who was killed late on Wednesday, said Abdullah Zeydan, a lawmaker representing Yuksekova with the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).
    Zeydan said that late on Wednesday authorities imposed a curfew in Yuksekova. Heightened security in the region has prevented ambulances from entering to transport the wounded.
    Footage from Yuksekova filmed by Dicle News Agency (DIHA) showed a group transporting a man with gauze bandages in a blood-stained blanket ducking when they came under fire.
    It was not clear who had shot at them.
    The PKK is listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. More than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have died since the rebels took up arms in 1984.
    The violence erupted after a June 7 election did not produce a single-party government and now threatens to mar a new vote, scheduled for Nov. 1 after the ruling AK Party failed to find a coalition partner.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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