Tweet
KURDISH REBELS DETONATE BOMB UNDER TURKISH MILITARY VEHICLE
March 5, 2013 - 14:35 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Kurdish militants have detonated a bomb under
a military vehicle in southeast Turkey, wounding four soldiers,
security officials said on Tuesday, March 5, according to Reuters.
Turkish intelligence officials and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
leader Abdullah Ocalan, imprisoned on an island near Istanbul, began
talks last October aiming to end a 28-year-old insurgency in which
more than 40,000 people have been killed.
As the discussions have advanced, violence has dwindled, with one
of the most recent PKK attacks coming in January, when its fighters
killed a Turkish police officer in the southeastern province of Mardin.
In Monday's attack, militants remotely detonated roadside explosives
under a military convoy on a road in the Lice district of Diyarbakir
province. Four soldiers in an armored vehicle were lightly wounded,
officials said.
Turkish military units were hunting the perpetrators, Diyarbakir
Governor Mustafa Toprak said.
According to Kurdish politicians, the PKK is now observing a de facto
ceasefire and Ocalan plans to declare an official halt to hostilities
by the Kurdish New Year on March 21.
But Turkish warplanes have continued to bomb militant targets in the
mountains of northern Iraq where thousands of rebels are based, drawing
warnings from the PKK that they are jeopardizing the peace process.
Military operations have also continued in southeast Turkey. Soldiers
backed by helicopters launched an operation around Cudi mountain in
Sirnak province near the Iraqi border, with artillery units shelling
the mountain, officials said.
There was no immediate comment from the PKK on Monday's attack.
Under a plan discussed by Ocalan and government representatives,
the PKK would end hostilities and give up its demands for autonomy
for Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast in return for greater Kurdish
rights, enshrined in the constitution, Turkish media have reported.
March 5, 2013 - 14:35 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Kurdish militants have detonated a bomb under
a military vehicle in southeast Turkey, wounding four soldiers,
security officials said on Tuesday, March 5, according to Reuters.
Turkish intelligence officials and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
leader Abdullah Ocalan, imprisoned on an island near Istanbul, began
talks last October aiming to end a 28-year-old insurgency in which
more than 40,000 people have been killed.
As the discussions have advanced, violence has dwindled, with one
of the most recent PKK attacks coming in January, when its fighters
killed a Turkish police officer in the southeastern province of Mardin.
In Monday's attack, militants remotely detonated roadside explosives
under a military convoy on a road in the Lice district of Diyarbakir
province. Four soldiers in an armored vehicle were lightly wounded,
officials said.
Turkish military units were hunting the perpetrators, Diyarbakir
Governor Mustafa Toprak said.
According to Kurdish politicians, the PKK is now observing a de facto
ceasefire and Ocalan plans to declare an official halt to hostilities
by the Kurdish New Year on March 21.
But Turkish warplanes have continued to bomb militant targets in the
mountains of northern Iraq where thousands of rebels are based, drawing
warnings from the PKK that they are jeopardizing the peace process.
Military operations have also continued in southeast Turkey. Soldiers
backed by helicopters launched an operation around Cudi mountain in
Sirnak province near the Iraqi border, with artillery units shelling
the mountain, officials said.
There was no immediate comment from the PKK on Monday's attack.
Under a plan discussed by Ocalan and government representatives,
the PKK would end hostilities and give up its demands for autonomy
for Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast in return for greater Kurdish
rights, enshrined in the constitution, Turkish media have reported.