Friday, 24 July 2015

PKK Claims Killing of ‘ISIL-linked’ Turkish Police

The military wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said on Wednesday it killed two ISIL-linked Turkish police officers in a town on the Syrian border as a reprisal for a suicide bombing blamed on terrorists that killed 32.

"A punitive action was carried out... in revenge for the massacre in Suruc," the military wing of the outlawed PKK, the People's Defence Forces (HPG), said in a statement on its website.

Turkish security forces had earlier discovered the bodies of two police officers in the country’s southeastern province of Sanliurfa near the border with conflict-ridden Syria.

Provincial governor Izettin Kucuk said the officers were found dead at their shared home in the small border town of Ceylanpinar, situated 800 kilometers (497 miles) southeast of the capital, Ankara, on Wednesday.

The statement by the HPG said that the attack took place at 6:00 am (0300 GMT) and that the police officers' identity cards and service weapons had been seized.

It described the attackers as an "Apoist team of self-sacrifice", in reference to the PKK's jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan whose nickname is "Apo."

The authorities had earlier appeared at a loss to explain the attack on the police in Ceylanpinar, which had been first announced earlier Wednesday.

PKK Claims Killing of ‘ISIL-linked’ Turkish Police

"A punitive action was carried out... in revenge for the massacre in Suruc," the military wing of the outlawed PKK, the People's Defence Forces (HPG), said in a statement on its website.

Turkish security forces had earlier discovered the bodies of two police officers in the country’s southeastern province of Sanliurfa near the border with conflict-ridden Syria.

Provincial governor Izettin Kucuk said the officers were found dead at their shared home in the small border town of Ceylanpinar, situated 800 kilometers (497 miles) southeast of the capital, Ankara, on Wednesday.

The statement by the HPG said that the attack took place at 6:00 am (0300 GMT) and that the police officers' identity cards and service weapons had been seized.

It described the attackers as an "Apoist team of self-sacrifice", in reference to the PKK's jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan whose nickname is "Apo."

The authorities had earlier appeared at a loss to explain the attack on the police in Ceylanpinar, which had been first announced earlier Wednesday.