Kurdish militants fire rocket at civilian airport in Turkey

Diyarbakir is home to a large Kurdish population, in a region where Kurdish militants have waged an insurgency for more than 30 years.

Four rockets were fired at a police checkpoint outside the VIP lounge, and passengers and staff were taken inside the terminal building for safety, Dogan news agency reported.

Following the increasing terror attacks by the PKK, which is listed as a terror organization by the USA and European Union, the Turkish government has intensified its counterterror operations.

One Turkish soldier was killed and eight others wounded in two separate blasts today in the country’s Kurdish-dominated southeast, and Kurdish militants launched a rocket-propelled grenade at a civilian airport, officials and the state-run news agency said. The attack happened not long before midnight on August 27.

Broadcaster NTV said the rockets landed on wasteland nearby.

The Governor of Diyarbakir said that no casualties or disruption of flights followed the attack. The Turkish forces responded with gunfire and carried out an artillery and tank attack on PKK targets. An improvised explosive device, planted by the PKK on the highway of Siirt’s Eruh district, was detonated while a truck carrying village guards was passing by on Sunday morning. Since then, more than 600 security personnel have been martyred and more than 7,000 PKK terrorists killed.