Unidentified gunmen have reportedly killed three Turkish soldiers in the volatile southeast of the country.
Share It :
The incident happened on Saturday in the Kurdish town of Yuksekova in Hakkari Province, bordering Iraq and Iran, according to Turkey’s semi-official Anatolia news agency.
The soldiers were shot to death from behind as they were visiting the town in plain clothes to buy electrical supplies for the military post where they served.
The soldiers were taken to the hospital but succumbed to their injuries.
The assailants escaped the scene of the attack, but a security operation is underway to arrest them.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, but Turkish officials say militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), who have carried out similar attacks in the past, are the prime suspects.
The attack comes as Kurds in Turkey are angry at the government for preventing them from crossing into neighboring Syria to join the fight against ISIL terrorists in the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani.
Ankara also refuses to intervene along its border with Syria where ISIL militants have besieged Kobani.
Turkish media reported on October 14 that the military had launched airstrikes on two PKK bases in the Daglica area in Hakkari Province.
The strikes reportedly followed three days of PKK shelling on a military outpost in the Kurdish-majority province near the Iraqi border.
The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region in southeastern Turkey since the 1980s. The conflict has left more than 40,000 people dead.
