A soldier and two civilians were killed during clashes with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Şırnak‘s Cizre district on Thursday night, while a soldier was killed and five others injured in clashes in Diyarbakır’s Sur district on Friday.
A specialized sergeant was killed during the clashes in Cizre on Friday and two brothers were killed during clashes in the same district on Thursday night.
The sergeant, Ümit İnan, died when PKK attacked soldiers with rockets on Friday afternoon.
The two brothers, 17-year-old Nidar Sümer and 45-year-old Halis Sümer, were killed during intense clashes in Cizre’s Dağkapı neighborhood.
Constant gunshots and explosions can be heard from Cizre 24 hours a day, as locals are reported to be suffering from lack of food and clean water due to an ongoing, weeks-long curfew.
Cizre and Silopi, which are near the Turkish border with Syria and Iraq, were placed under curfew on Dec. 14, 2015, as part of the state’s anti-PKK operations, which, according to the Turkish media, have involved some 10,000 police officers and soldiers. Gendarmes have been using artillery and tank shells in the operations in the districts.
Six soldiers were injured during the clashes with the PKK in Sur on Friday. According to media reports, the injured soldiers were taken to Diyarbakır Military Hospital for treatment. The Doğan news agency reported on Friday afternoon that one of the soldiers had died in the hospital.