Five Turkish soldiers killed in PKK attacks

At least five members of the Turkish army forces have been killed in two separate attacks carried out by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants in the country’s volatile southeast.

According to Press TV quoting a statement released on the Turkish Armed Forces’ (TSK) website, three members of the security forces were killed and two others were seriously wounded on Monday in an armed attack by PKK militants in the Sur district of Diyarbakir, situated 676 kilometers (420 miles) east of Ankara.

The two injured soldiers are still receiving treatment, reports said.

The statement also added that two other Turkish soldiers lost their lives in a separate attack in Sur on the same day.

This as three Turkish security officers, including a soldier and two police officers, were killed on January 31 in clashes with the PKK in the violence-hit Cizre district of the Southeastern Province of Sirnak.

Since late July 2015, Turkey’s southeastern regions have witnessed a spike in violence amid heavy confrontations between army forces and the PKK, an outlawed group that have been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since 1980s.

ME