Two soldiers, village guard martyred in SE Turkey attacks

MARDIN, Turkey

Three people, including two soldiers and a village guard were martyred in separate PKK attacks in southeastern Mardin province’s Nusaybin district Monday, Turkish security sources said.

In the first incident, PKK terrorists martyred a village guard who only wanted to take his sick son to a hospital in the district.

The 48-year-old village guard, Adnan Durak, was wounded by PKK terrorists in front of a health center where he wanted to take his sick son, the sources said.

Durak later succumbed to his wounds at the Nusaybin State Hospital.

Temporary village guards and Martyrs' Families Federation President Orhan Kandemir told Anadolu Agency: "They have martyred a father in front of his son's eyes."

Kandemir said the fight against PKK terrorists will continue.

In the second incident, PKK injured a Turkish soldier during an army operation in Nusaybin district’s Dicle neighborhood.

The soldier, who was hit by a long-barreled weapon, later succumbed to his wounds at the Nusaybin State Hospital.

In Nusaybin's Firat neighborhood, another soldier was seriously injured in a separate PKK rocket attack.

The soldier too later succumbed to his wounds at the Nusaybin State Hospital.

Mardin’s Governor Office said in a statement Monday that “three terrorists were caught, 163 terrorists were neutralized, 122 barricades were removed and 351 hand-made explosives were destroyed” since the anti-terrorist operation began in Nusaybin district on March 14.

The PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the EU – resumed its 30-year armed campaign against the Turkish state in July 2015.

Since then, over 350 members of the security forces have been martyred and thousands of PKK terrorists killed in operations across Turkey and northern Iraq.