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World Landmine News
Landmine laid by PKK kills child in Bingöl - Turkish Daily News
The explosion is the latest in a string of landmine explosions in eastern and southeastern Anatolia, targeting army personnel, village guards and civilians alike.
One child was killed and three others were injured when a landmine, believed to have been laid by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), went off in the Genç district of the eastern province of Bingöl.
The explosion hit a group of children pasturing animals near Genç, a statement from Bingöl Governor's Office said yesterday. A 14-year-old child, identified as Elif Şenlik, died at the scene, while three others, aged 12 and 13, were injured.
Two of the children were in critical condition and were transferred to a hospital in neighboring Elazığ, the statement said.
Attacks using remote-controlled landmines are a hallmark of the PKK, which has stepped up violence in eastern and southeastern Anatolia since it called off a unilateral truce in June 2004.
Landmines, which are prohibited all across the world, are still heavily being used by the PKK, the statement said. Not only soldiers, police officers and village guards but also civilians of all ages, domesticated and wild animals are injured by landmine explosions.
The blast came a day after a government-paid village guard was killed in a roadside explosion as a group of village guards were traveling to their watch posts near the Kulp district of the neighboring province of Diyarbakır.
A first explosion did not cause any casualties or damage to the vehicle, but as the guards left the car to inspect the blast site, a second landmine went off, killing a 35-year-old man.
On July 27, a gendarmerie major was also killed when a landmine exploded, again near Genç. One major and a soldier were injured in the blast.
In the face of the escalating fighting, the military has intensified its operations against PKK terrorists who are based in the mountains of neighboring northern Iraq.
Ankara says the PKK uses northern Iraq as a springboard for attacks inside Turkey and has threatened a cross-border operation if Washington and Baghdad fail to crack down on the organization regarded as a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.
Posted: Monday, July 31, 2006
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