One Of The Three Turkish Soldiers Wounded By PKK Terrorists On Friday Dies In Hospital

TUNCELI (CIHAN) - One of the three Turkish soldiers wounded in an armed terrorist attack by the outlawed pro-Kurdish Kurdistan Workers` Party (PKK) died in hospital on Friday.
On Friday, PKK terrorists opened fire on Turkish soldiers patrolling a highway near the eastern Anatolian city of Tunceli wounding three soldiers. The wounded soldiers were evacuated by helicopter to Elazig Military Hospital with one of them dying later there.
Following the attack, the Erzincan-Tunceli highway was closed to traffic and extra troops were sent to the region where further armed clashes erupted as Turkish security forces extended their operations with a view to capturing the people responsible for the attack.
Armed clashes between PKK terrorists and Turkish security forces have increased in recent days in southeastern and eastern Anatolia.
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 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.
In the last week of May, a pro-PKK news agency, the Mesopotamia News Agency announced that the PKK would end its unilateral ceasefire on June 1, 2004 and recommence its activities in Turkey. 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.