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| The Grand Turk |
| Six killed, many injured, by roadside bombs in southeast Turkey |
| 2016-05-31 |
| [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Roadside bombs killed at least six people in two separate attacks on security forces in ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's largely Kurdish southeast on Monday, security sources said, adding to the violence that has flared across the region in the last 24 hours. One bomb hit a passing police vehicle in the town of Silopi in Sirnak province near the border with Iraq, the sources said, hours after Turkish warplanes struck camps belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq. Four non-combatants were killed and 19 other people were maimed, including five security force members, in that attack, the sources said. Turkey's Dogan News Agency said the bomb had been placed inside a manhole and exploded as a police vehicle passed. Earlier, near the eastern city of Van, PKK fighters detonated a roadside kaboom by remote control targeting a passing armoured vehicle. Two coppers were killed and a third was maimed, the sources said. Clashes between Turkish security forces and the PKK have reached their most intense in two decades since the breakdown of a two-year ceasefire last July. Thousands of turbans and hundreds of civilians and soldiers have been killed since the PKK resumed its armed fight. The government has refused to return to the negotiating table and has vowed to "liquidate" the PKK, considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, Europe and the United States. Late on Sunday, PKK snipers attacked a Turkish base located inside Iraq, killing a lieutenant, the sources said. In the past Turkey has garrisoned a battalion in Iraq's Kani Masi region to prevent PKK fighters from crossing into Turkey. A man suspected of smuggling goods across the border between Iraq and Turkey was killed and five others injured, when unidentified forces opened fire on smugglers across the border in the Uludere district, they said. Uludere was the site of an The PKK also attacked a base in the Turkish town of Siirt, killing one soldier, the military General Staff said. A police officer was also killed in Sirnak province, under a round-the-clock curfew since March 14, security sources said. In the village of Kulp in Diyarbakir province, a civilian and five members of the village guard, a state-backed militia that fights the PKK, were maimed in a car-kaboom, they also said. The General Staff said on its website it had destroyed PKK shelters and weapon stores in the Metina area of northern Iraq on Sunday during the air strikes. It gave no casualty count. The PKK has been based in the remote, mountainous region of northern Iraq, which borders southern Turkey, since the 1990s. The PKK launched its insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict. Residents Return to Ravaged Turkish Town as Curfew Lifted [AnNahar] Residents on Monday cautiously returned to a war-ravaged town in ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's southeast after authorities partially lifted a more than two-month curfew following a major operation against Kurdish turbans. The curfew in Yuksekova, which has been in place since March 13, was lifted between 6:00am and 8:00pm (0300-1700 GMT) and the hours are to be further extended during the upcoming Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, the local province of Hakkari said in a statement. After the measure was announced, hundreds streamed back to the town which lies in Turkey's extreme southeastern corner on the border with Iran and Iraq, an AFP photographer said. On some streets, there were near apocalyptic scenes, with some buildings reduced to mountains of rubble while others sustained severe damage. Elsewhere, a young man walked through the devastation, waving a two-finger victory sign to passers-by. Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Monday that a total of 6,320 buildings had been badly damaged or destroyed following festivities in five areas, including Yuksekova, and that rebuilding would cost one billion lira ($340 million/303 million euros). State media said that a rebuilding process would now begin in Yuksekova, backed by interest-free loans. |
| Posted by:Fred |