Turkey: Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK attacked and killed Three Turkish soldiers and seven were wounded

June 17, 2017 By administrator

pkk attack and kill turkish soldiers Three soldiers were killed in two separate attacks by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants in the southeastern province of Hakkari and the eastern province of Erzurum on June 17.

PKK detonated a hand-made explosive placed on a field during the passing of security forces in the Güven Dağı region of Hakkari. Two soldiers were killed and another seven were wounded in the explosion. Five PKK militants were also neutralized during the operation. Earlier in the day, one soldier was killed during an armed clash with PKK militants in the rural of the Şenkaya district of Erzurum. According to a statement from the governor’s office, the soldier was wounded during the clash but later succumbed to his injuries in the hospital. It added that three PKK were killed in the operation.

Separately, two PKK militants were killed by a drone strike during a security operation in northern Iraq on June 17.

According to a statement issued by the Turkish General Staff, Turkish security forces used drones to target PKK militants in the Nirva Seytu Mountain region.

Syria al-Bab: Turkish airstrikes killed 110 civilians in 2 weeks

February 21, 2017 By administrator

A UK-based monitoring group says at least 110 civilians have been killed by Turkish airstrikes in the Daesh-held Syrian city of al-bab over the past two weeks.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights noted that on Monday alone eleven members of one family were killed as their home was destroyed by Turkish airstrikes and shelling aimed at paving the way for advancing Turkey-backed militants.

“There is fierce bombardment from Turkish forces on Daesh positions in al-Bab,” added the group.

It added that a large number of civilians are forced to flee their homes every day as Turkish-backed militants make advances in the city.

“I saw destruction — the artillery and the airplanes shelling. There’s destruction everywhere,” said one fleeing civilian. “We got out safe and sound, thank God, and the town is now encircled,” he added.

Al-Bab is Daesh’s final bastion in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo — second only in significance to the terrorists group’s de facto capital in adjacent Raqqah.

In August 2016, Turkey began a major military intervention in Syria, dubbed “Euphrates Shield,” sending tanks and warplanes across the border.

Ankara claimed that its military campaign was aimed at pushing Daesh from Turkey’s border with Syria and stopping the advance of Kurdish forces, but Damascus denounced the operation as a breach of its sovereignty.

“Euphrates Shield fighters gathered last night and divided up the town into three axes to facilitate the storming of al-Bab,” said a local militant field commander, Abu Jaafar.

He added that his forces were able to seize control of a medical complex, a key roundabout, and a school building in the town’s west side in operations that began on midnight.

“We’ve faced some difficulty with Daesh snipers — there were more than 10 snipers last night that surprised our troops,” Abu Jaafar added. “More than 10 of our forces were killed (Monday), and dozens wounded, because of the mines planted by this treacherous organization,” he noted.

Violence killed nearly 7,000 Iraqi civilians in 2016: UN

January 3, 2017 By administrator

The United Nations says at least 6,878 Iraqi civilians lost their lives last year due to violence perpetrated by Takfiri terrorists in the Arab country.

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said in a statement that 12,388 other civilians were injured in 2016.

UNAMI noted that the numbers “have to be considered as the absolute minimum,” citing its inability to verify civilian casualties in conflict areas as well as those who “died from secondary effects of violence after having fled their homes due to exposure to the elements, lack of water, food, medicines and health care.”

Furthermore, the data did not include casualties among civilians in Iraq’s western Anbar Province for the months of May, July, August and December, it added.

The figures further showed that only in December 2016, a total of 386 civilians were killed and 1,066 more wounded in Iraq, with the worst affected areas being Nineveh Province and the capital city of Baghdad in descending order.

Violence had claimed the lives of at least 7,515 civilians in Iraq in 2015, according UNAMI figures.

Over the past months, Iraq has been rocked by a wave of bomb attacks, mostly claimed by the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group.

The militants have recently increased their acts of violence across the country in revenge for the blows they have been suffering at the hands of Iraqi forces, particularly in the northern city of Mosul.

“This is, no doubt, an attempt by Daesh to divert attention from their losses in Mosul and, unfortunately, it is the innocent civilians who are paying the price,” said Jan Kubis, the special representative of UN Secretary General in Iraq and UNAMI head.

Daesh began its campaign of terror in northern and western Iraq in 2014.

Iraqi army soldiers and allied fighters are leading operations to win back militant-held regions.

Kurdish fighters PKK Killed Five in an ambush Turkish soldiers in southeast Turkey

July 30, 2016 By administrator

pkk-kill-soldiers Five Turkish soldiers were killed by fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in an ambush in the southeast of the country, shaken by regular violence, reported Friday local media.

The soldiers were attacked on the road between the towns of Hakkari and Cukurca, while patrolling in the province of Hakkari, said the Dogan news agency. The agency said eight soldiers were also wounded in the attack occurred near the border with northern Iraq. In July, the Turkish security forces conducted a major military operation targeting Kurdish militants in Hakkari province.

The attacks against the Turkish army have multiplied since late July 2015 cease-fire that had held for two and a half years in the southeast Kurdish majority. Since these attacks have caused hundreds of deaths on the side of security forces.

In recent months, the government has conducted military operations against the PKK to dislodge Kurdish fighters in urban areas. According to activists, civilians are also affected by renewed conflict.

Since the beginning of the PKK uprising in 1984, nearly 40,000 people were killed in the fighting. The PKK is considered a terrorist organization shared by the US and the European Union.

Saturday, July 30, 2016,
Stéphane © armenews.com

PKK says 442 Kurdish fighters, 2,982 Turkish police killed since last year

July 28, 2016 By administrator

QANDIL,— Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) armed wing, the HPG, has released casualty figures of the past year’s clashes between Kurdish rebels and the Turkish army according to which 442 guerrillas and 2,982 Turkish police and soldiers have been killed.

In a statement issued on Tuesday the HPG also said the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was “solely accountable” for the war and the destruction of Kurdish cities in the country.

“The AKP government was never committed to the peace process. It started a propaganda war before launching its indiscriminate offensive on July 24, 2015 which led to the total destruction of Kurdistan,” the statement reads and accuses the army of having used “the heaviest weapons with most destructive technology” against Kurdish cities.

According to the released data, the Turkish army has launched 356 land operations, 658 areal bombardments, 1649 heavy artillery shelling, 110 direct clashes since July last year.

The PKK guerrillas have during the same period carried out 1199 “actions”, destroying 386 military vehicles, 15 tanks, 4 Cobra helicopters and targeting 110 military checkpoints.

The numbers of the prisoners are accordingly 16 guerrillas and 13 soldiers and policemen.

The Turkish army has not commented on the figures although it has released different numbers in the past and put the death toll for the guerrillas considerably higher.

The balance sheet released by PKK of war in Turkish Kurdistan cities and towns for the period between 24 July 2015 and 23 July 2016.

The balance sheet for one year is as follows:

Members of state forces killed: 2218
Members of state forces injured: 690
Members of state forces taken prisoner: 2
Armored vehicles destroyed: 457
Armored vehicles damaged: 307
1 Sikorsky helicopter and 1 train were damaged
Drones downed: 65
PKK members martyred: 363
PKK members injured: 15
PKK members taken prisoner: 16
Civilians martyred: 298
Civilians injured: 27

PKK units also seized a large quantity of ammunition from Turkish state forces and destroyed several arms and vehicles belonging to Turkish forces.

Turkey has frequently bombed PKK bases inside Kurdistan region after clashes resumed between Ankara and Kurdish guerrillas in July 2015.

The PKK has some 5,000 guerrilla soldiers stationed mostly in the remote bordering areas of Iraq’s Kurdistan region.

Since July 2015, Turkey initiated a controversial military campaign against the PKK in the country’s southeastern Kurdish region after Ankara ended a two-year ceasefire agreement. Since the beginning of the campaign, Ankara has imposed several round-the-clock curfews, preventing civilians from fleeing regions where the military operations are being conducted.

Observers say the crackdown has taken a heavy toll on the Kurdish civilian population and accuse Turkey of using collective punishment against the minority.

Activists have accused the security forces of causing huge destruction to urban centres and killing Kurdish civilians.

Pro-Kurdish opposition political parties say about 1,000 civilians, mostly Kurds, have perished in the fighting, since the Turkish offensive against the PKK centred in towns and cities in Turkish Kurdistan.

The PKK took up arms in 1984 against the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to push for greater autonomy for the Kurdish minority who make up around 22.5 million of the country’s 78-million population. A large Turkey’s Kurdish community openly sympathise with PKK rebels.

The PKK statement came only a day after the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) co-leader Selahettin Demirtas announced that the party intended to initiate talks between the PKK and Ankara after they stalled last year prior to the elections.

Demirtas has said the HDP plans to send two delegations to PKK leadership in Qandil Mountain in the Iraqi Kurdistan and Imrali Island on the Mediterranean coast where the influential PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan is imprisoned and has been rejected to meet his HDP mediator since early last year.

Source: http://ekurd.net/kurdish-fighters-turkish-police-2016-07-28

Turkey: Youth killed Three Turkish police officers in southeast Turkey

July 11, 2016 By administrator

A file photo of Turkish police officers (by AFP)

A youth has killed three Turkish police officers before being killed himself by other officers in the city of Sanliurfa in southeast Turkey, Turkish media say.

Anadolu Agency reported on Monday that the 17-year-old youth opened fire on three police officers at a bus station in Sanliurfa as they asked people for identification papers. He then fled before opening fire on another group of police.

Three officers shot and injured in the incident later died in hospital.

The report did not specify when the shooting took place.

Anadolu cited Sanliurfa’s governor as saying that the shooting was not terrorism-related.

Governor Gungor Azim Tuna also said the attacker had psychological problems and was traveling with his family.

Turkish border guards kill 9 Syrian refugees

June 19, 2016 By administrator

Syrian refugees are seen at the Bab al-Salama refugee camp, near A’zaz, Syria, next to the Turkish crossing gate, February 6, 2016. ©AFP

(Presstv) Turkish border guards have killed nine members of a Syrian family, who were trying to cross the frontier and take refuge in the neighboring country.

The deadly incident took place near the village of Kherbet Eljoz in Syria’s Idlib Province on Saturday night as the Turkish forces opened fire on the refugees, leaving eight more Syrians injured.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source told The New Arab news website that the victims were among several families displaced from the city of Jarablus in Syria’s Aleppo Province.

“Turkish border guards opened fire on them indiscriminately, killing nine people and wounding eight others,” the source said, adding that the dead were “all from one family – three children, four women and a man,” who fled Jarablus due to fighting.

It was not the first time that the Turkish border guards employed force against Syrians uprooted from their homes, with activists saying that at least 50 asylum seekers have been killed on the Turkish border in the past few months.

Back in May, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report that in March and April 2016, five people, including a child, were killed and 14 others were seriously injured as a result of Turkish soldiers’ shootings and beatings.

Gerry Simpson, senior refugee researcher at the New York-based rights organization, said the Turkish soldiers are “killing and beating” refugees.

“Firing at traumatized men, women, and children fleeing fighting and indiscriminate warfare is truly appalling,” he added.

Turkey, however, rejected the accusation, claiming that it is welcoming Syrian refugees.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. Damascus regards a number of countries as the main supporters of the militants fighting the government forces in the Arab country.

Turkey, which is hosting 2.7 million Syrian refugees, closed its borders to the asylum seekers around a year ago, but permitted entry for critical medical cases and humanitarian organizations.

Ankara and the European Union sealed a contentious agreement in March in a bid to tackle Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II.

Under the deal, the 28-nation bloc will take in thousands of Syrian refugees directly from the country and in return will reward Ankara with money, visa exemption and progress in its EU membership negotiations.

Ankara is known as a staunch supporter of the terrorist groups operating to topple the Syrian government.

Video: Turkish Military Song Chant: “We will kill all Kurds as we killed Armenian”

January 24, 2016 By administrator

arton121316-480x335 In this video filmed by soldiers of the Turkish army in the occupied town of Silopi Kurdish in Turkey, this group of soldiers called JOH and POH, are the Turkish death squads that killed hundreds of civilians while operating in Kurdish cities under curfew. A rough translation of what they sing is “Everything, every time, everywhere always the Turks on land and in the sky That we Turks -… We will never allow the Kurds to survive Silopi We will fight until at the end ….. we swear every place will remain a Turkish land. the ISIS (Islamic State) did is nothing compared to what we will do, we will kill all Kurds as we have slaughtered all the Armenians. Amen. “

https://youtu.be/clNcrPU6isI

Sunday, January 24, 2016,
Stéphane © armenews.com

Turkish forces kill Kurdish baby, grandfather in clashes with PKK rebels: family

December 27, 2015 By administrator

DIYARBAKIR-AMED, Turkey’s Kurdish region,— A three-month baby and her grandfather were killed in crossfire in clashes between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants in Turkish Kurdistan, in the country’s southeast, medics said on Sunday.

The family’s house in the southeastern Kurdish town of Cizre came under shelling on Friday night as clashes intensified between Turkish security forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The baby, identified as Miray, was shot in the head, doctors said.

But the family called the ambulance when they saw Miray was breathing. Her 73-year-old grandfather Ramazan Ince was caught in the crossfire while he was carrying Miray to the ambulance, witnesses told AFP.

But it was already too late for her and her grandfather died in hospital, medics said.

The family claims that the fire came from the direction of the state hospital in Cizre, which is controlled by Turkish security forces.

Meanwhile seven months pregnant Zekiye Eren and eight months pregnant Asya Sezgin (37) gave premature birth under the strain of intensified Turkish bombardments late Saturday evening. Both mothers lost their lives due to belated access to hospital, ANF reported.

It is reported that bodies of two babies will be held at Cizre State Hospital’s morgue and laid to rest alongside other slain civilians once the curfew is ended.

Tensions are rising throughout Turkey’s restive southeast, where curfew has been in place in a number of towns due to clashes.

The operations mark a new escalation in the over three decade conflict with the PKK after a fragile truce collapsed in July after just one-and-a-half years.

The army said on Saturday nearly 200 PKK militants were killed in the operations since the offensive began in mid-December.

The PKK initially took up arms in 1984 against the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, with the aim of establishing an independent state for Turkey’s Kurdish minority, who make up around 22.5 million of the country’s 78-million population, although lately the demands have focused on greater autonomy and rights. The conflict has left tens of thousands dead.

A large Turkey’s Kurdish community openly sympathise with PKK rebels.

Source: eKurd

Turkey: At least 86 killed in twin blast in Turkey’s Ankara ahead of peace rally

October 10, 2015 By administrator

At least 86 people died in two explosions that shook a road junction in the center of the Turkish capital of Ankara on Oct. 10, the largest signle terror attack in the country’s history, ahead of a “peace” meeting, Health Minister Mehmet Müezzionğlu said nearly six hours after the attack.

The minister said during a televized press meeting that 62 people died at the attack scene in addition to 24 people who died at the hospitals.

Some 18 people were under surgery as 28 others were in intensive care, the minister said.

9 policemen injured slightly.

The minister said health teams moved in dynamically, but the “there might have been some disruptions, due to the extent of the attack and panic, which might have caused in rise in death toll.”

However, Interior Minister Selami Altınok ruled out any responsibility, saying that he did not consider resignation.

Altınok said there was some brief information on the type of the attack and the organization behind it, but he would not share it due to intelligence concerns.

“I hope to go to the ballot boxes under healthy conditions,” said the minister, referring to the Nov. 1 re-elections.

Seperately, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) Ömer Çelik also said the attack aimed at the elections. Reiterating that the AKP and its leader Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu suspended their election campaign activities for three days, Çelik underlined need for a “united stance.”

“This terrorist activity is aimed at creating chaos, instigating certain street movements and the election environment. We should calmly fail these attempt,” he said.

“The attack aims at creating trauma among the society. It is extremely planned and organized. We are passing through the biggest grievances of our history. It is virtually an attempt of massacre. It aims at shaping civil dynamics of Turkey. It aims at turning Turkey into an inward-oriented mood at a time when there are very important foreign policy developments taking place. This attack which took place in Ankara may take place at anywhere, there is need for a joint stance,” the spokeperson said.

“We do not consider this attack as launched at a certain group or party, this attack is launched against all colors of Turkey.”

The blasts were at the two sides of the exit of the main train station in the city, where the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) supporters were gathering.

The cause of the blasts was not immediately clear.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported that it could be a suicide bomber, as eye witnesses said human flesh was all over the scene.

Blasts occurred ahead of a planned “peace” march organized by labor unions and a number of NGOs to protest against the conflict between the state and militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in southeast Turkey.

Organizers have cancelled the meeting, calling on participants from other cities to return. They also called on people to donate blood for numbers of injured people at Ankara hospitals.

The police emptied the scene to avoid more casualties in any possible third attack.

The police fired in the air to disperse protesters from the scene. Demonstrators angered by the attack on their fellow activists shouted “police murderers,” AFP reported, but were then dispersed as the security forces intervened.

HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş said in Istanbul that the attack was very similar to the two recent attacks in Diyarbakır and Suruç. “The toll is very high,” he said.

On June 5, two days before the general elections that took HDP to the parliament as a party group, four people died in a twin bomb attack on a HDP rally in Diyarbakır, one of the strongholds of the party in the southeast, where Demirtaş was scheduled to address the crowd. He had called calm after the attack.

Turkey is now heading for a re-election, as the former election failed to produce a one-party or coalition government.

A sum of 33 people died in a July 20 attack on a socialist youth group by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the southeastern district of Suruç.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan cancelled all scheduled programs.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu meet with with Deputy PM Yalçın Akdoğan, Health Minister Müezzionğlu, Interior Minister Altınok, the police chief, the intel chief and Ankara Mayor at noon in Ankara.

Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaorğlu said Turkey does not deserve this, also announcing that his party has cancelled all events today.

The party is ready to lend any support to end terrorism, he said. “We are ready with all our power,” he said.

“We have to spend joint efforts,” he said.

CHP deputy leader Gürsel Tekin said a number of lawmakers from his party were planning to attend the meeting to lend support for the call for peace. Musa Kart, one of those deputies, shared the photo of an iron shot on the social media, saying that such pieces dropped from the air.

Council of Europe Secretary General Jagland has condemned the attack.

“The news from Ankara this morning is shocking and disturbing. This is a ruthless and barbaric attack on peaceful demonstrators. I express my condolences to all who have lost their friends and loved ones. Freedom of assembly and freedom of expression are fundamental pillars of democracy”, said Jagland in a written statement.

The rally was organized by the Confederation of Public Sector Trades’ Unions (KESK), Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK), Turkish Medical Association (TTB) and Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB).