A total of seven soldiers have been killed in separate attacks perpetrated by the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the country’s southeast from Monday night into Tuesday evening.
Members of the PKK attacked a military outpost in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on Monday night with a truck bomb, killing three soldiers and injuring 47 other people.
A vehicle laden with explosives was detonated by remote control by PKK terrorists in front of the district gendarmerie command in Hani.
One soldier was killed at the site of the attack while two soldiers, who were heavily injured, died at hospital. As many as 47 people 39 of whom are soldiers were also injured in the attack, according to a statement from the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) on Tuesday. Some of the injured civilians were reportedly family members of the military members.
Many ambulances and search and rescue teams were dispatched to the site of the attack immediately. Search and rescue work was still underway on Tuesday.
According to media reports, an intense clash erupted between the Turkish security forces and the PKK terrorists following the attack.
Reports state that nearby windows were blown out, shop shutters were mangled and streets were covered in debris.
On Tuesday, two soldiers were killed and two others were injured in Mardin’s Nusaybin district after PKK terrorists detonated explosives.
Another incident took place in Şırnak province where one soldier was killed and three others were injured during clashes between the PKK and the Turkish military forces.
Hakkari’s Dağlıca area was also home to a PKK attack on Tuesday which led to the killing of one soldier and injured four others.
A settlement process launched by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government in late 2012 to end Turkey’s long-standing Kurdish problem collapsed following a two-year-cease-fire last July, triggering the worst violence in Turkey’s southeast since 1990s. Hundreds of civilians, security forces’ members as well as PKK terrorists have been killed in the region in the renewed conflict over the past months.