PHOTO: Burning building in Cizre in southeastern Turkey after fire by security forces on Sunday (DHA)


Up to 60 people have reportedly been killed during an operation by Turkey’s security forces in a besieged Kurdish town in the southeast of the country.

Turkish media reported the announcement from security forces that 10 wounded fighters of the insurgent Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were killed on Sunday night in the district of Cizre, when the building in which they were sheltering was destroyed.

Cizre has been under a round-the-clock curfew since December, amid clashes between security forces and the PKK throughout the southeast. A ceasefire between the Turkish Government and the Kurdish insurgency, which has carried out an armed campaign for more than three decades, broke down in July.

See also Turkey Feature: Wounded Civilians Die in Government Siege of Kurdish Town

State-run TRT Haber said that 60 PKK “terrorists” were killed when the building was destroyed.

However, the pro-Kurdish party HDP condemned the deaths. MP Faysal Sarıyıldız said tanks set fire to the building, sparking an explosion. The wounded men, located in the basement, were trapped.

Sarıyıldız challenged the low total of 10 casualties put out by officials: “The fact is that a brutal massacre has taken place here. Figures won’t alter the nature of the atrocity.”

HDP deputies had demanded two weeks ago that ambulances be dispatched to the building to take the wounded to a hospital. Government officials said that any ambulance approaching the area risked being fired upon by insurgents.

The Cumhuriyet daily said four other houses, connected to the destroyed building, were also targeted by the tank fire. well as four other houses.

According to the General Staff, 564 “PKK terrorists” have been killed in the fighting in Cizre since it was placed under curfew.