Two Kurdish guerrillas and a policeman were killed in separate clashes in Turkey’s tense southeast in renewed violence that has erupted since the end of a rebel truce, security sources said on Wednesday. Fresh fighting since the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) ended its unilateral ceasefire on June 1 threatens the fragile peace in the mainly Kurdish southeast. It comes at a time when Turkey is implementing reforms to expand Kurds’ cultural rights and meet European Union membership criteria.
A military source said two PKK fighters were killed late on Tuesday in a clash in Hakkari province, a remote area near the Iranian border used by rebels in recent months to re-enter Turkey from mountain bases mostly in Iraq. Also on Tuesday night, PKK gunmen opened fire on a police station in Hatay province near Syria, killing one officer, a security official said. The deaths raise the toll since the beginning of June to at least eight guerrillas and seven security personnel. Security officials said a bomb exploded late on Tuesday in a commercial building in the town of Sirnak near the Iraqi border. No one was hurt in the blast, which damaged several shops, and there was no immediate claim of responsibility. Separately, the PKK claimed responsibility for a gun attack in Hatay on Sunday that killed three village guards, who are armed by the state. Security officials estimate more than 2,000 militants have entered Turkey in recent months and say they are crossing back from northern Iraq via Iran and Syria. |