Fresh curfew declared amid exodus from ?dil

An indefinite curfew has been declared in the southeastern Anatolian district of ?dil amid an exodus that has lowered the town's population by nearly one tenth, days after the interior minister signaled an expansion of military operations against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The round-the-clock curfew was set to take effect in downtown ?dil, a district in the southeastern province of ??rnak, and the district's Dirsekli village starting from 11 p.m. on Feb. 16, the ??rnak Governor's Office said. 
The curfew is being imposed to capture PKK militants and remove barricades and trenches "with explosives hidden inside" to ensure the "security of our people," the governor's office claimed.

PKK militants reportedly detonated explosives placed under a road connecting ?dil and Midyat, a district in the southeastern province of Mardin, early Feb. 16, leaving no casualties. A military operation was launched to capture the perpetrators of the explosion.

Though the curfew was just announced, the first sign that ?dil would soon be the site of military operations came when the Education Ministry "invited" around 1,200 teachers working in the district to come to a seminar in Istanbul via text message, just as was done in Silopi, Sur and Cizre before curfews were announced and operations launched.

Cizre and Silopi, two districts in the southeastern province of ??rnak, as well as Sur, a district in the southeastern province of Diyarbak?r, have been experiencing round-the-clock or partial curfews since early December 2015.

"There are terrorists in ?dil, as well," Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala told reporters on Feb. 9 when asked whether the recently sent text message could be deemed as a sign of the government's...