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Tension rises in Southeast as terrorist PKK scraps cease-fire
Two police officers were injured on Thursday evening when PKK terrorists attacked a police car in the southeastern province of Hakkari’s Çukurca district. The police officers were hospitalized at the Hakkari State Hospital. Soon after the incident, as security forces launched an operation to locate the terrorists, another police car in the same region also came under attack by terrorists with long-barrel guns. No one was injured.
Another attack was staged at the Gevaş District Police Department and police lodging facilities in the province of Van. There were no casualties, officials said, adding that security had been increased in the province.
Terrorists also threw explosives at the Nusaybin District Police Department on Thursday, which blew up in garden of the building. Nobody was injured in the explosion but some cars were damaged.
Tension was also high in the Silopi district of Şırnak on Thursday as pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) supporters staged a demonstration and marched towards the Habur border gate to protest recent operations against the PKK. In a clash which erupted during the demonstration, BDP Şırnak deputy Sevahir Bayındır’s leg was broken.
According to recent intelligence reports, the PKK ordered its operatives to launch attacks in city centers in response to Turkish security forces accelerating counterterrorism operations with the onset of summer. According to these reports, the PKK is planning bombings in city centers as well as the assassination of high-level state officials such as governors and district governors. Security has been strengthened in all southeastern provinces in response to possible attacks. Turkish authorities have said the PKK’s attacks this spring include remote-controlled bombings, ambushes on military bases and firefights. Officials said May has been the deadliest month this year so far, with 23 soldiers killed and 33 wounded. “Two days ago, we started waging attacks against the Turkish army in response to their repeated military attacks against the party and political attacks facing Kurds in Turkey,” a PKK spokesman, Ahmed Danees, told Reuters on Thursday.
Stating that the organization has decided to break the unilateral cease-fire with Turkey that it announced in April last year, he blamed a lack of progress on a political reform package announced last year by the Turkish government and military operations of the kind late last month when Turkish warplanes attacked some 50 PKK targets in northern Iraq.
The PKK announcement coincides with a landmark visit to Turkey by Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani, underscoring deepening trade ties between Turkey and northern Iraq.
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