Diyarbakir: A 17-year-old boy was shot dead during armed clashes between police and assailants in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey overnight and one police officer was wounded, security sources said on Wednesday.
It was the latest in a series of deaths highlighting the fragility of a two-year-old peace process between the government and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, which has waged a three-decade insurgency in the region.
The sources said youths linked to the PKK opened fire on police with rifles and threw homemade explosives in the largest southeastern city of Diyarbakir around midnight, triggering police retaliation.
The dead youth, Abdul Kadir Cakmak, suffered three gunshot wounds to his head and chest and was taken to hospital where he died, the sources said. Relatives said he was shot by police.
Police released video footage of the incident showing an individual crouching down and apparently taking aim with a rifle before suddenly collapsing to the ground.
The incident occurred 10 days after another youth was shot dead during clashes in Yuksekova, near the border with Iran.
In October, dozens were killed during unrest in the region fuelled by rage among Kurds at what they see as the government’s failure to help Syrian Kurds fighting Daesh militants in the besieged town of Kobani (Ain Al Arab) on Turkey’s southern border.
The violence has complicated efforts to end the PKK’S 30-year-old insurgency, in which more than 40,000 people have been killed. The PKK is designated a terrorist group by Ankara, the United States and European Union.
