New curfew orders in Kurdish towns as three members of Turkish forces are killed

DIYARBAKIR (K24) - The Turkish Government-appointed governorate of the Kurdish province of Diyarbakir announced early Saturday that a curfew has been put in place as of 6 AM in Hazro, a town of 5 thousand people some 70 kilometres northeast of the city of Diyarbakir.

The three neighbourhoods of Citlibahce, Ormankaya and Guzdami will remain under curfew until further notice, a governorate online press release read. The released said that the Turkish government forces will conduct an operation against "terrorists" in reference to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters in urban and the surrounding rural area in Hazro.

A second curfew in Diyarbakir province was announced in nine neighbourhoods of Lice, a town where more than 10 thousand people reside, some 50 kilometres north of Hazro. The nine neighbourhoods under curfew in Lice are: Kabakaya, Yalaza, Dolunay, Ortaç, Baxlan, Cavundur, Varlık, Esenli and Canak.

Meanwhile, a K24 correspondent in the city of Diyarbakir reported that a Turkish special forces member was killed Saturday in a clash with the PKK-affiliated Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDGH) members in the historic Sur district, as a curfew imposed there entered its fourth day. Friday saw at least 13 civilians wounded by a bomb explosion in the area where intermittent clashes continued.

Turkish authorities imposed the curfew in the aftermath of the killing of the Kurdish human rights lawyer Tahir Elci in a street shootout between the police and suspected YDGH members.

Elsewhere in the town of Cizre in Sirnax (Sirnak) province two Turkish soldiers were killed by suspected PKK members when the civilian vehicle they were in came under fire.

(Hesen Kako contributed to this report from Diyarbakir)