News / Turkey

Two PKK militants killed after Turkish police chase

Tuesday, 27 October 2020 12:12 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 27 October 2020 12:12 AM ]

The scene in southern Hatay province's Iskenderun district in the aftermath of the PKK attack on Oct. 26, 2020. (Photo by DHA via Daily Sabah)

A suspected militant affiliated with Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) killed himself by detonating explosives following a police chase Monday near Turkey’s border with Syria, and a second suspect was slain by security forces, officials said.

The governor of Turkey’s Hatay province says a small number of people were also injured in the incident in the town of Iskenderun, but none of them were in serious condition.

Gov. Rahmi Dogan said police tried to stop the militants' vehicle at a road block close to the nearby town of Payas, triggering the police chase that continued into Iskenderun.

The suspects then tried to escape on foot. According to Dogan, one of them died after setting off an explosion, while the second was killed by the security forces. CNN-Turk television said the explosion was caused by a hand grenade.

The governor said the suspects were affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK or its Syria-based sister organization. They had fled their hideout in the Amanos Mountains, also in Hatay province, following Turkish security operations there, he said.

Dogan added that the two suspects were part of a group of four militants who had flown to the Amanos from the Syrian town of Manbij, in Aleppo province, using powered paragliders. He did not identify the suspects, the Associated Press reported.

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Turkish military forces have killed dozens of Kurdish PKK militants in Turkey and northern Iraq.

The explosion caused significant damage to cars and shops, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Earlier, it said police, fire service rescuers and medical teams were dispatched to the area.

The PKK has led a decades-long insurgency in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast region and is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

The militant group has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region since 1984, and the conflict has led to the loss of tens of thousands of lives since then.

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