JINHA

NEWS CENTER – The Northern Kurdish town of Yüksekova saw violent police clashes Wednesday night, with Turkish police wounding two 12-year-old children. Police used live ammunition widely in the clashes.

The events, in which two were wounded and one detained, started when police opened fire on youths in the street with rubber bullets. A 12 year-old boy suffered a rubber bullet wound to the leg at Cengiz Topel Street in the town center. The police teams deployed armored vehicles to the street and began firing on a group of youth with rubber bullets, despite there being no demonstration taking place. Yüksekova, located in the far eastern part of Northern Kurdistan (in Turkey) has seen violent police clashes increasingly frequently over recent months.


As the group of youth responded by throwing stones, the police fired gas canisters at the group. Additional police were deployed to the street as the clash escalated. The new teams opened fire into the air with live bullets, wounding a 12-year-old boy. Police took the wounded boy away from the scene in an armored vehicle and detained another from the group.

One of the armored vehicles of police was overturned; three police remained inside it for half an hour. Several police opened fire into the air and then removed the police officers from the vehicle to hospitalize them.

Shopkeepers closed local shops in protest against the violence against civilians, but clashes continued into the late hours. Police tear gassed the Dicle News Agency reporters and local journalists attempting to cover the events. With a funeral for a YPG fighter scheduled for Yüksekova today, tension in the town may continue today.


(nt/cm)