Turkish forces and PKK engage in intense clashes

Counter-terrorism forces in Turkey have killed at least two women in an operation against a cell of suspected militants in the city of Istanbul.

“Wounded people have been denied access to medical treatment”, the HRW report said, adding that Turkish officials prevented access by observers or media to the affected areas.

Police fired tear gas, water cannon and plastic bullets to disperse a crowd chanting “Long Live Kurdistan” in Istanbul’s Taksim square, Reuters witnesses said.

“The Turkish government should rein in its security forces, immediately stop the abusive and disproportionate use of force, and investigate the deaths and injuries caused by its operations”, HRW senior Turkey researcher Emma Sinclair-Webb said.

“The curfew has been imposed until further notice, with the aim of avoiding harm to civilians”, the local authorities said in a statement.

In the town of Cizre in Sirnak province, which has been under curfew since early last week, 103 Kurdish militants have been killed. The supporters of the Kurdish armed group have dug trenches, often planted with explosives and erected barricades to seal off neighborhoods.

The fighting mainly took place in the predominantly Kurdish cities of Cizre and Silopi in Sirnak province and inside a neighbourhood in Diyarbakir.

Islamist Kurdish party Huda-Par, usually sympathetic to the ruling AK Party, said that security forces were taking position inside civilian houses including two party members, against the residents’ will, therefore making them a target.

Tensions have been running high, especially in southeastern Turkey, as the military operations against PKK militants have been under way after the truce failed.

In its latest toll, the army said that 89 Kurdish militants have been killed in Cizre since the operation began, including nine on Sunday alone.

CNNquoted a source from the armed forces as saying that the operation aims “to neutralize the members of the separatist terrorist organization nesting in residential areas” as well as to “establish public order and security” and “enable civilians to resume normal living conditions”.

Over a dozen people, including a Turkish soldier, have been killed in clashes in the volatile southeastern part of Turkey.