|
Turkish violence continues, nine more die
9.4.2006
|
|
|
|
DIYARBAKIR,
Kurdistan-Turkey, April 8, 2006 (AFP) - 21h45 - The
violent clashes between the Turkish security forces
and Kurdish militants continued unabated on
Saturday, causing deaths on both sides and sparking
a short-lived hostage taking in Istanbul.
The last two weeks have seen a sharp surge in
violence in the southeast, where the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has been waging an
armed campaign for Kurdish self-rule since 1984.
On March 25, Turkish army troops killed 14 presumed
PKK rebels, sparking several days of riots in the
southeast and a wave of deaths on both sides.
In the lastest wave of attacks, security sources
said on Saturday that six Kurdish militants
suspected of involvement in the deaths of five
soldiers were killed the previous day in clashes
with an army commando unit in the southeastern
province of Sirnak, near the border with Iraq.
A seventh militant was killed in a rural area near
Batman, 180 kilometres (110 miles) northwest of
Sirnak in a security sweep, Anatolia news agency
reported. It said that 25 kilogrammes of explosives
had been found at the scene of the fighting.
Two policemen, one a senior officer, were also
killed and two others injured on Saturday when a
mine exploded in the province of Elazig, about 400
kilometres (250 miles) northwest of Sirnak, CNN-Turk
television channel quoted military sources as
saying.
The surge in violence is thought to have been behind
a short-lived hostage-taking in the northeastern
city of Istanbul on Saturday.
Two men armed with air pistols took an employee and
a customer hostage in a fast food outlet in the
centre of the city before freeing their captives and
given themselves up peacefully to police.
The men, aged around 25, were wearing identical
T-shirts in the colours of the Turkish flag with
"Turkey" blazoned across them, an AFP photographer
at the scene reported.
They shouted "We are Turks" and "They are killing
our soldiers" before handing themselves over to the
large police force that had surrounded the building
in the city's Taksim district.
They were thought to have been referring to troops
killed in clashes with Kurdish militants.
The recent surge in violence began after the 14
Kurdish rebels were killed by the army.
In the protests and rioting that followed the
rebels' funerals -- the worst urban unrest in the
country for years -- 12 more people were killed. A
further three died when PKK sympathisers threw
petrol bombs in Istanbul.
In a separate development, Anatolia reported on
Saturday that Turkish police had arrested a man they
believe was behind a deadly bomb attack that killed
five people in the seaside resort of Kusadasi last
July.
Yilmaz Orhan, chief of police in the western Turkish
province of Aydin, where the suspect was questioned,
said the man had admitted to the offence.
"The suspect, according to his confession, placed
four kilos of C-4 explosive under the seat of a
minibus and exploded the bomb by calling from a
public telephone to a mobile telephone connected to
the explosive," Orhan said.
The suspect, identified only by the initials MSF,
was arrested in Elazig on his return from a training
camp organised by the PKK, Anatolia cited anonymous
police sources as saying.
Five other people were arrested in Kusadasi on
suspicion of being accessories to the bombing.
Police had to disperse an angry crowd shouting anti-PKK
slogans as the suspects were driven to court in the
town.
Five people, among them a young British woman and an
Irish teenager, were killed and 13 injured when the
bomb exploded on a minibus in Kusadasi.
The conflict in the Kurdish majority southeast has
claimed an estimated 37,000 lives and the PKK has
been branded a "terrorist" organisation by Ankara,
the European Union and the United States.
AFP
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 