UPDATE – Soldiers martyred in PKK terror attack in SE Turkey

MARDIN (AA) – Two soldiers were martyred and eight others were injured in operations against the terrorist group PKK in Turkey’s southeastern province of Mardin on Thursday, officials said.
The Mardin Governorship told Anadolu Agency that one soldier was martyred and nine others were injured, two critically, after a homemade bomb exploded in the Nusaybin district’s Abdulkadir Pasa neighborhood on Thursday.
The injured soldiers were taken to Nusaybin State Hospital, where one of them succumbed to his wounds despite intervention. The treatment of the others continues.
The soldiers were deployed as part of the ongoing Hawk-7 Operation meant to fill in PKK-made trenches, lift barricades, destroy handmade PKK explosives, and re-establish public order in the region when faced the explosion.
The PKK — listed as a terrorist organization also by the U.S., and the EU — resumed its 30-year armed campaign against the Turkish state in July 2015. Since then, more than 450 members of the security forces, including troops, police officers, and village guards, have been martyred, and over 4,500 PKK terrorists killed in operations across Turkey and northern Iraq.