2 Killed in Shooting in Southeast Turkey
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A policeman and a civilian were killed in a Wednesday shooting attack in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeastern region, Turkish media say.
A group of gunmen opened fire on Officer Mehmet Uyar while he was sitting in a tea house in the southeastern Diyarbakir region late Wednesday, the Turkey-based Anatolia and Dogan news agencies reported.
The policeman and a civilian passer-by later died of their wounds at a hospital overnight, the reports said.
Another civilian was also injured in the attack, which state media blamed on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Press TV reported.
Meanwhile, according to state media, in the town of Cizre in the southeastern Sirnak region, one suspected PKK member was killed in a gunfight with Turkish military forces.
Turkey has recently begun conducting military strikes against purported ISIL targets inside Syria as well as PKK positions in northern Iraq.
The Turkish military strikes against targets in Iraq and Syria, which started last Friday, came after at least 32 people were killed in a massive “terrorist” explosion in the southwestern Turkish town of Suruç earlier. The attack was attributed to the ISIL, a terrorist group which controls parts of Iraq and Syria.
Ankara also blames the PKK for a string of other attacks against its security forces in recent days.
The Turkish government is believed to be one of the main supporters of the terrorist groups fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since 2011, with reports showing that Ankara actively trains and arms the militants operating in Syria, and also facilitates the safe passage of would-be foreign terrorists into crisis-hit areas.