Five Turkish soldiers killed in Diyarbakir clashes

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (K24) - On Monday, at least five Turkish soldiers were killed and seven others wounded in clashes with Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) affiliates in the curfew-plagued central Sur district of Diyarbakir.

K24 Diyarbakir reports that fierce clashes continue in the neighborhoods of Abdaldede, Cevatpasa, Lalebey and Ziya Gokalp. In December, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu vowed "to cleanse" these areas in one week.

At the time of publishing, General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces confirmed the death of only two soldiers in a statement on its website, while state-owned Anadolu Agency reports the number as five.

One of the soldiers killed was a lieutenant, and two police officers were among those wounded.

In a statement on Sunday, the Turkish Army said the number of PKK fighters killed in Sur was 145, and in the nearby city of Cizre it exceeded more than 500.

The PKK has neither confirmed nor denied the accuracy of these numbers.

According to the Turkish government, 205 members of the Turkish police and military were kiled in the clashes between July 20 and Dec. 28, 2015.

Meanwhile, a Kurdish cameraperson working for the leftist Turkish IMC TV, Refik Tekin, was released from police custody after being briefly detained in the city of Mardin.

Tekin was wounded on Jan. 20 in Cizre when a group of civilians he was accompanying came under fire from a Turkish armoured military vehicle. His camera recorded the moment he and two others fell after being shot.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein condemned the Cizre shooting and called on Turkish authorities to investigate the incident.

 
Editing by Benjamin Kweskin and Karzan Sulaivany
(Hesen Kako contributed to this report from Diyarbakir)