Rights Groups Warn of Rising Civilian Toll in Turkish Crackdown on Kurds

Meanwhile, the Turkish General Staff announced that 21 PKK terrorists were killed during counter-terrorism operations in the southeastern provinces of Bitlis, Sirnak and Diyarbakir on Tuesday.

The protesters sought to march on the Sur neighbourhood of the southeastern city of Diyarbakir – which has been under an nearly constant curfew since December 2 – but were halted by a police barricade. Many residents have been displaced as a result of the fighting while wounded people have been denied medical attention, according to the report.

Turkish tanks shelled the southeastern town of Cizre on Tuesday in a growing military operation to root out Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants, but rights groups and Kurdish politicians say weeks of military operations have killed dozens of civilians and uprooted tens of thousands.

With tensions rising throughout Turkey’s southeast, police fired tear gas canisters in the city of Van to disperse a protest of about 500 people against the curfews, arresting 18 people, the Dogan news agency reported. After the bombing, the PKK militants, who accuse the government in Ankara of supporting Daesh, engaged in a series of supposed reprisal attacks against Turkish police and security forces, in turn prompting the Turkish military operations.

One Turkish soldier hurt in clashes in Cizre on Saturday has died of his wounds, the security sources said. Since then, the government has bombarded PKK positions in Syria and Iraq and enforced curfews on a number of cities in the majority-Kurdish southeast to try to flush out militants.

The escalating violence has dashed hopes for the resumption of peace talks between the state and PKK, which have fought a three-decade conflict that has killed more than 30,000.

A ceasefire that lasted for two years between the government and the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK fell apart in the summer.

The PKK, deemed a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, has been fighting an insurgency since 1984, demanding greater Kurdish autonomy in the southeast of the country.

A full investigation is needed to determine in each case whether members of the security forces unlawfully killed civilians or whether civilians were killed in crossfire, by armed fighters or by flying shrapnel during armed clashes.