Kurdish separatists ‘attack football match’
Two dead and eight injured in attack on police playing football in eastern province of Tunceli, Turkish media reports.
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| Turkey has increased attacks on PKK camps across its border with Iraq [GALLO/GETTY] |
Kurdish separatist fighters opened fired on a group of Turkish policemen playing football in the eastern province of Tunceli, killing a senior officer and his wife and wounding eight other police officers, Turkish media reported.
The police were playing at an artificial pitch in the city centre when four or five fighters arrived by car and opened fire with long-range rifles.
One separatist was shot dead as police returned fire. It was the third attack in two days in southeastern Turkey, where two soldiers and two village guards also died in attacks by Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters, amid heightened violence in the region.
Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish bases in northern Iraq on Sunday where PKK fighters operate from camps in the Qandil mountains of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, according to the Turkish military.
Turkey has said its forces killed up to 160 PKK fighters in air and artillery strikes in August.
On Saturday, Turkey’s southeastern neighbour Iran said its troops had killed or wounded 30 members of the PJAK (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan), which is affiliated to the PKK.
The PKK has said it believes Turkey and Iran are co-ordinating attacks in the region and says it will join forces
with the PJAK in response.
The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 and is listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. More than 40,000 people have died during the conflict.