Global General

6 killed, 9 injured in PKK attack in east Turkey

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-07-21 00:47

ANKARA - Six soldiers were killed and nine others injured in an attack staged by the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) in southeast Turkey early Tuesday morning, Turkish military said.

The assault on a military unit occurred near the Cukurca town of the Hakkari Province at about 2:00 am local time (2300 GMT) and the clashes killed a lieutenant, four senior sergeants and a soldier, said the General Staff in a statement.

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Nine other soldiers were slightly wounded, while a military operation involving an unmanned aerial vehicle, assault helicopters and reinforcement units was going on in the region, said the statement.

Earlier reports by Turkish media said the clashes started late Monday night and lasted till early Tuesday morning.

Also on Tuesday, a group of PKK members opened fire at Turkish troops who were carrying out a military operation in the eastern Van Province, leaving one soldier dead, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

Recent months have seen more attacks from the PKK as the weather warmed up. On Monday, 11 soldiers and one civilian were wounded in a road mine blast near Uzumlu village of Cukurca town, local Dogan news agency reported.

The handmade mine was allegedly placed by PKK members and remotely detonated, the agency said.

Listed as a terrorist organization by the Turkish government, the United States and the European Union, the PKK took up arms in 1984 in order to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey.

Some 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts involving the PKK for the past over two decades.