Remote-controlled Roadside Bomb Thought To Be Planted By PKK Kills 2 Turkish Soldiers

TUNCELI (CIHAN) - A remote-controlled roadside bomb thought to be planted by the Kurdistan Workers` Party (PKK) along the Tunceli-Ovacýk highway killed two Turkish soldiers and wounded another near the eastern Anatolian city of Tunceli on Saturday.
The bomb exploded as Turkish soldiers patrolling the Tunceli-Ovacýk Highway in an armored personnel carrier were passing by. The armored personnel carrier was propelled a distance of about 10 meters by the blast, and a hole in the ground about 1.5 meters deep was made by the blast.
After the explosion, Turkish security forces backed by fighter Cobra and Sikorsky helicopters initiated a wide-ranging security operation in the region. Tunceli-Ovacýk highway has been closed to traffic and the gendarmerie are not permitting people to enter the city of Tunceli due to security reasons.
Armed clashes between PKK terrorists and Turkish security forces have increased in recent days in southeastern and eastern Anatolia.
On Friday, PKK terrorists opened fire on Turkish soldiers patrolling a highway also near the city of Tunceli, wounding three soldiers. The wounded soldiers were evacuated by helicopter to Elazig Military Hospital where one of them died later.
On Wednesday, two members of the PKK terrorist organization were killed in armed clashes with Turkish security forces at Kayaönü village near Adýyaman. PKK terrorists on Wednesday also attacked a gendarmerie barracks at Yayla village near Genç, Bingol. With the latest increase in clashes, Turkish security forces have stepped up security operations in the region.
The leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)/KONGRA-GEL, Zübeyir Aydar stated on June 1 that the PKK has ended its six-year unilateral ceasefire after holding a general council in the Kandil Mountains in Northern Iraq between 16 and 26 May. The PKK had announced a unilateral ceasefire in 1998 after the organization had been brought to the brink of elimination by the successful military operations of the Turkish security forces.
The PKK caused the death of more than 30,000 people in Turkey between 1984 and 1999.
The European Union has included the outlawed pro-Kurdish terrorist organizations, the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress (KADEK) and the Kurdistan People`s Congress (KONGRA-GEL) in the European Union`s terrorist organizations list.
The leader of the PKK terrorist organization, Abdullah Öcalan, was captured by Turkish intelligence services in Kenya in February 1999. Öcalan was sentenced to death but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment after capital punishment was abolished in Turkey.
Also today, the Chairman of the pro-Kurdish Democratic People`s Party (DEHAP) Tuncer Bakýrhan has called on the terrorist organization, the Kurdistan Workers` Party (PKK), also known as KONGRA-GEL, to reinstate its ceasefire in Turkey.