Turkish Troops Wounded in Clashes with Kurd Protesters
Five Turkish soldiers were injured on Wednesday during clashes with Kurdish protesters over government plans to build military barracks in the southeast of the country.
Soldiers fired tear gas and water cannon to break up a 12-day sit-in by some 400 protesters in the Lice district of Kurdish majority Diyarbakir province.
Five military officers were hospitalized after demonstrators responded with gunfire, and hurled stones and fireworks, according to an AFP reporter on the scene.
The situation was still tense on Wednesday afternoon as demonstrators roamed the streets. No arrests had been confirmed.
The protesters are against the construction of new army posts in Kurdish-majority areas, which they see as a threat to a peace process launched in 2012 between government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The local governor's office in Diyarbakir on Monday called for additional security to face what it said was increased activity by the PKK, which is blacklisted as a terrorist organization by Turkey and much of the international community.
The rebels declared a ceasefire in March 2013, but the peace process appeared to stall in September after the Kurdish rebels announced they were suspending their retreat from Turkish soil, accusing the government of failing to deliver on promised reforms.
The PKK launched an insurgency seeking self-rule in the southeast in 1984 that has claimed about 45,000 lives.
Source: Agence France Presse
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