Araz News: September 06, 2015, Two police officers were killed and six were injured in two attacks on Sunday by the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (pkk) in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır, while clashes continue in other parts of the predominantly Kurdish Southeast of Turkey where the PKK have attempted to declare autonomy in places,today zaman reported.

The governor’s office declared a curfew, as of 9:30 a.m., in the Sur district of the city where the first attack took place in the very early hours of the day.

In yet another attack in the city in the afternoon, three more police officers were wounded.

A curfew has also been in place since Friday in Cizre, a district in the province of Şırnak where clashes continued on Sunday.

The victims of the first attack in Diyarbakır — members of the special operations unit of the police — died when the police car in which they were traveling was hit by a rocket fired by members of the Patriotic Revolutionist Youth Movement (YDG-H), an affiliate of the PKK.

According to the Hürriyet daily news portal, the two police officers killed in the first attack are Mustafa Turanlı and Muzaffer Can Ersoy.

As far as Today’s Zaman has learned, several rockets were fired at the police car.

The victims were in the Hasırlı neighborhood as part of an operation against the YDG-H, which had dug ditches to prevent security forces from entering the neighborhoods where they want to declare their own rule.

The police have been patrolling since Saturday certain roads in the neighborhood.

The YDG-H, which is the urban branch of the PKK, has reinforced its presence in the southeastern towns during the now-suspended settlement process that the government had launched with the PKK.

Sait Çağavul, 19, was killed during clashes in the Nur neighborhood of Cizre on Saturday night.

According to the town’s mayor, the death toll in the town is two with many wounded, CNN Türk said.

Reports of shooting and explosions came during the day on Sunday from several neighborhoods of the town where mobile phone communication and Internet connection were out.

The curfew in Diyarbakır’s Sur district will be in place until the next notice, a statement by the Diyarbakır Governor’s Office said.

Police were also attacked on Saturday night in two places by rockets in Sur, which is a district in Diyarbakır.

One of the rockets hit a police vehicle with a jammer inside, while the second hit a building next to the Sur Police Department.

Apart from damage to the police vehicle and the building, a civilian was slightly injured in the attacks.

The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government suspended the settlement process, launched at the end of 2012 to resolve the country’s Kurdish issue, accusing the PKK of not having neither laid down their arms or having left the country.

Around 80 members of the security forces, a significant portion of whom are police officers, have been killed in the PKK attacks which began in late July, following a general election in early June.

Many police officers were sent to the Hasırlı neighborhood following the attack. It is speculated that there are many YDG-H and PKK members equipped with guns and rockets in the neighborhood.

In many parts of Cizre, the electricity is also said to be out.

There is a shortage of food and medicine in the town due to the curfew, the Doğan news agency quoted Mahmut Tuğrul, a deputy from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), as saying on Sunday.

According to the agency’s report, Tuğrul, who is in Cizre, was busy trying to take wounded people to the hospital.
The HDP is affiliated with the PKK.

HDP deputies Leyla Güven, Ziya Çalışkan, Ayşe Acar Başaran, Mehmet Ali Aslan and Faysal Sarıyıldız who were heading to Cizre via the town of İdil were stopped by the gendarmerie at the outskirts of İdil, the report said.

Leyla said on her social media account they would try to reach Cizre via Nusaybin and that they were “very concerned about what’s happening in Cizre.”

Both HDP ministers in the interim Cabinet — EU Affairs Minister Ali Haydar Konca and Development Minister Müslüm Doğan — criticized in a joint written statement on Sunday the curfew in Cizre, saying, “Curfews are being perceived by locals as a harbinger of new deaths and massacres.”

According to a report by the Anka news agency, the ministers claimed the local people are concerned about a massacre being conducted against them.

The PKK has been particularly targeting police officers in its attacks as it is trying to establish control over towns, the Hürriyet daily said on Sunday based on a report by the police that was prepared by the anti-terrorism and intelligence units of the Security General Directorate (EGM).

According to the police report, the PKK reinforced its presence in cities during the settlement process when a tentative cease-fire was in place. Many PKK members who received military training in camps settled in the cities and became organized under the YDG-H, the report said.

The YDG-H, which completed its formation in 2013, was established by those PKK members who had earlier surrendered to the police. Those PKK members who were not involved in any crimes had been released by the police.

While the settlement process was on, these PKK members also kept watch on public institutions such as governor’s offices, police headquarters in cities and military posts as possible targets, the police report also said.

According to the report, the PKK is trying to establish independent areas in towns over which it would have full control.

A total of 31 police officers have been killed in PKK attacks since July 20 when the PKK attacks began, the daily’s report said. The figure does not include the two police officers who were killed in Diyarbakır on Sunday.

Two police officers are also being held captive by the PKK.

A man was killed on Saturday by PKK terrorists who had blocked a road in the Şemdinli district of Hakkari. The terrorists opened fire on the car driven by the man when he refused to comply with their calls to stop.

The driver, Miran Kaya, upon noticing that the PKK had blocked the road ahead, made a sharp U-turn and tried to drive away.

Celal İnan, who was also in the car, was killed by the PKK fire. Kaya, an executive at the Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) Şemdinli branch, was injured in the attack.

Turkey began pounding PKK targets in northern Iraq on July 24, after two policemen were killed by the terrorist group apparently in retaliation for a suicide bombing on July 20 that killed 34 pro-Kurdish activists and was blamed on the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Violence has escalated sharply since then, with the PKK stepping up attacks on security forces in southeastern Anatolia.