Asia

Home page

Asia

Turkish soldier killed in mine blast

08 August 2012 19:52 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. One soldier of the Turkish security forces was killed after stepping on a landmine during a military operation in the southeastern province of Sirnak on Wednesday, APA reports quoting the private Dogan news agency.

The Turkish soldier was severely injured by the landmine likely planted by the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) in the operation conducted on Mount Kato, said the report, adding that he was airlifted to Sirnak Military Hospital but died of his wounds.

Meanwhile, suspected PKK members launched mortars at the 27th Border Battalion in Semdinli town of Hakkari province Wednesday afternoon, said the report, adding that numerous mortars fell in front of the garrison and two of them fell in the nearby Gulmese village, striking a civilian vehicle and damaging a garden.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, took up arms in 1984 in an attempt to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. Since then over 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts involving the group.