Four missing Turkish citizens were kidnapped by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the Turkish General Staff announced on Wednesday. A statement on the Turkish General Staff official web site said that three village guards and one citizen, who have been missing for two days in the village of Ogulveren in the eastern Turkish city of Van, were abducted by PKK terrorists. Security forces launched operations to rescue the missing citizens and to capture the terrorists, the statement added. The statement went on to say that a clash took place between Turkish security forces and the PKK members near the Belat forests in the southeastern city of Sirnak. "No casualties have been reported in the clash while operations still continue to track down the terrorists" the statement concluded.
Meanwhile, three members of the PKK escaped from their organization and surrendered to Turkish military authorities in the Silopi district of Sirnak late on Tuesday, having first been sheltered by the Kurdistan Democrat Party (KDP) offices in northern Iraq.