PKK kills five soldiers in Sur amid ongoing operations

Five Turkish soldiers were killed on Feb. 1 during operations conducted against suspected militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the southeastern district of Sur, amid ongoing military operations targeting the group in southeastern Turkey.

The Turkish General Staff said Feb. 1 that three soldiers and two police officers were heavily wounded during clashes with militants in Sur, a district in the southeastern province of Diyarbak?r, and that three of the wounded soldiers succumbed to their injuries in hospital.

Two more soldiers and a police officer were also hospitalized due to injuries sustained during the operation. 

Meanwhile, three Turkish security officers, including a soldier and two police officers, were killed on Jan. 31 in clashes with the PKK in the violence-hit Cizre district of the southeastern province of ??rnak. 

A soldier and a police officer were heavily wounded as clashes erupted between security forces and militants on Reyhan Street in Cizre's Cudi neighborhood on Jan. 31, as part of an anti-terror operation named after deceased soldier Burak Demirci. 

The wounded officials, identified as Sgt. 1st Class Ahmet Semerci and special operations police officer Ömer Güney, were brought to the Cizre State Hospital where they succumbed to their wounds. 

A second police officer was severely wounded later on Jan. 31, as the operation and clashes continued throughout the day. 

The second police officer, identified as Taner Cinpolat, also succumbed to the wounds he sustained during the clashes. 

The Turkish Army released a statement on its website announcing the casualties, while adding that it had captured the dead bodies of three PKK militants alongside their weapons...