Kurdish militants kill security forces, workers in Turkey
Kurdish militants killed a soldier, village guard and three workers in attacks in three separate provinces in southeastern Turkey on Monday, officials said.
Militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) killed one Turkish soldier when they detonated a hidden explosive device in the Cukurca district of Hakkari province, officials from the Hakkari governor’s office said.
The militants detonated another explosive device in the Caldiran district of Van province, wounding two village guards, officials said. They said one of the wounded guards had died in the hospital following the attack.
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Separately, PKK militants attacked workers carrying out roadside work on a road for a military base in the Uludere district of the southeastern province of Sirnak, killing two workers and wounding another five, security sources said.
The militants carried out another attack on a worksite in Sirnak, killing one worker, the local governor’s office said in a statement. It said three PKK militants had been killed in a subsequent operation in the region.
Turkish security forces have killed 55 PKK militants in eastern Turkey in the last week, interior ministry data showed on Monday. Another 11 militants surrendered and four were capture alive, the ministry said.
Over the weekend, PKK militants shot and killed two officials from the ruling AK Party in southeast Turkey, authorities said.
The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 and more than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have been killed in the conflict. It is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union.
A ceasefire between the Turkish state and the militants broke down in July 2015 and the southeast subsequently saw some of the worst violence since the insurgency began.
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