Turkey: Helicopter Crash And Clashes With Kurdish PKK Rebels Leave 14 Soldiers Dead
In the violent civil conflict currently playing out in Turkey, a helicopter crash and clashes with Kurdish PKK rebels left 14 soldiers dead in the nation’s southeast early this morning.
Turkey’s government has outlawed the PKK — the Kurdistan Workers Party — but Kurdish nationalists continue to rebel in the fight for sovereignty in the largely Kurdish region of southeast Turkey, the Hakkari province. Clashes with Kurdistan’s rebels reportedly broke out early Friday morning local time following fatal bomb blasts elsewhere in Turkey. Seven people were killed in a car bomb attack in Istanbul, and four PKK militants — suspected to be bomb-makers responsible for the attack — died in Diyarbakir when loading explosives onto their truck.
The violent clashes with Kurdish PKK rebels of Friday morning left 14 soldiers dead — eight Turkish and six Kurds — and two more were killed when technical faults caused a military helicopter to crash during a mission to provide assistance in the area, according to Voice of America.
“Six soldiers were killed and eight were wounded when clashes broke out with rebels in Hakkari province on Friday. Two additional soldiers died when a military helicopter sent to the area later crashed due to a technical fault,” said VOA of the helicopter crash in Turkey.
The latest casualties that occurred due to today’s tragic events in the long-running civil conflict in Turkey — the helicopter crash and clashes with Kurdish PKK rebels which left 14 soldiers dead — have been confirmed in statements from the Turkish military and officials of the interior ministry of Turkey.
“Eight Turkish soldiers and six members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were killed Friday in clashes in the largely Kurdish region of southeast Turkey, a Turkish military statement said,” reports VOA. “Meanwhile, four suspected bombmakers were killed near Diyarbakir late Thursday, Turkish interior ministry officials said.”
There has been no official claim of responsibility for the deadly car bomb attacks, but the PKK — considered by Turkey and its allies — is strongly suspected to be responsible.
“The PKK… has waged a decades-long insurgency for greater autonomy for Turkey’s Kurds,” said VOA of the violent conflict that has gripped Turkey for decades.
“Clashes have increased between Turkish troops and militants in the southeast since July 2015, when a two-year cease-fire between Ankara and Kurdish separatists broke down. The area has seen some of the worst fighting since the height of the insurgency in the 1990s. The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 1984,” reports VOA.
Hurriyet Daily News elaborated on details of the string of tragic and fatal events that occurred over the last 24 hours in Turkey — the helicopter crash and clashes with Kurdish PKK rebels that left over 14 soldiers dead — and the findings of investigations into the latest events in Turkey’s civil conflict.
“Four suspected bombmakers were killed and at least 10 people wounded when an explosion ripped through a village in Turkey’s southeastern province of Diyarbak?r late on May 12, security sources and the Interior Ministry said,” reports Hurriyet Daily. “The blast occurred at about 10:30 p.m. in Diyarbak?r’s Sar?kam?? district, about 25 km (15 miles) from the city center, as outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants ‘loaded explosives onto a stolen truck,’ according to the Interior Ministry.”
The Interior Ministry of Turkey stated that the explosives detonated prematurely upon being loaded into a the truck, injuring 10 or more civilians and killing the four Kurdistan Workers Party rebels. Tragically, yet more deaths followed due to the helicopter crash that occurred when assistance was called to the site of the latest conflict in southeast Turkey.
“Six soldiers were killed and eight others were wounded as clashes erupted between security forces and PKK militants at the Ç??l? base in Hakkari’s Çukurca district at around 4:50 a.m. on May 13,” reports Hurriyet Daily of events leading up to the crash.
A military official of Turkey announced in written statements that a helicopter crash occurred at around 5:50 a.m. due to an unknown technical problem and that both pilots died in the helicopter crash.
The latest events in southeast Turkey, whereby a helicopter crash and clashes with Kurdish PKK rebels left 14 soldiers dead, are a terrible reminder that the nation remains in the grips of civil war. Investigations into the helicopter crash in which both helicopter pilots died will continue as officials review photographic evidence of the string of fatal attacks.
[Photo by Ulas Tosun/Getty Images]
