3 Killed in Overnight Attack in Turkish Oil Field

Members of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) killed three people in an attack on an oil field in southeast Turkey overnight, security officials said on Thursday, Today’s Zaman reports.

The terrorists shot dead two security personnel and an electrician as they got out of their vehicle at the Selmo oil field in Kozluk, Batman province on Wednesday night, officials said. The Canadian firm Transatlantic Petroleum Ltd. operates the Selmo field and describes it as the second largest in Turkey. Transatlantic said in a statement that it was working with local authorities to investigate the incident.

An air-backed operation was launched at dawn in pursuit of the PKK terrorists, security officials said. Batman Governor Ahmet Turhan said operations at the oil field were continuing.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in the PKK’s separatist insurgency since it took up arms against the state in 1984. The PKK is designated a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union and Turkey.