Kurdish rebels shot dead three Turkish soldiers in an ambush late on Saturday night in a village in the south eastern province of Mardin, security sources said on Sunday. The three soldiers had been returning from the village of Ikipinar to their military gendarme post when they were ambushed by militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), they said.
The attack comes at a time of heightened clashes between Turkey's armed forces and Kurdish rebels in Turkey's south-east, and a parliamentary boycott by deputies of a pro-Kurdish party. Ten days ago Turkey's chief of staff said grenades thrown by militants ignited a fire in a heavily forested area in Diyarbakir province killing 13 soldiers and wounding seven. Seven militants also died in the fighting.
The pro-Kurdish Firat news agency disputed the official version with a report that quoted a witness saying a Turkish warplane had targeted the militants in an air strike which also killed the soldiers positioned nearby.
The PKK ended its six-month old cease-fire in February and moved to what it calls an "active defence" stance, whereby its fighters defend themselves if threatened. Regardless of the "active defence" stance there has been a steady stream of militant activity in recent weeks, including abductions.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.