Two people were killed in clashes between police and Kurdish forces in a town in southeastern Turkey on Friday, local sources said, adding that clashes were continuing, with smoke rising from buildings and shots ringing out.
Around 10 people were wounded in the clashes in Silopi, a town in Sirnak Province, close to Turkey’s borders with Iraq and Syria. Local sources say two people were killed but there was no immediate confirmation from security sources, World Bulletin reported.
Violence has swept eastern Turkey for more than two weeks, when Ankara launched a two-pronged offensive against Islamic State militants in Syria and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party camps in Iraq, but so far the bombardments have focused far more on the PKK forces.
Dogan news agency said Turkish security forces retaliated when they came under fire as they entered districts of the town at around 5 a.m. local time to seal ditches dug by members of the youth wing of PKK.
The PKK’s call for greater rights and power for Turkey’s Kurdish minority has claimed tens of thousands of lives since it began more than 30 years ago.
The current fighting has left a 2013 ceasefire in tatters.
