JINHA

AMED - Turkish security forces reportedly burned, bombed and opened fire on civilians as clashes raged throughout the day in the Lice district of Northern Kurdistan (in Turkey).

Soldiers and HPG guerrillas (affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK) clashed throughout the day yesterday in the rural area formed by the triangle of the towns Lice, Hani and Kocaköy, in Diyarbakır province. Villagers reported that soldiers set fire to their homes and opened fire indiscriminately on residents.

In the village of Zurê, villagers reported that soldiers set fire to homes with dead bodies and wounded inside them, refusing villagers access to the buildings. Activists from political parties also headed towards the villages of Hewrê and Zerê, where soldiers were reported to have rained ammunition on villagers.

The entire district of Lice was put under curfew for a second night last night and the rural area where forest fires and villages were raging was declared a "special security zone."

The Democratic Regions Party (DBP) leadership in the province released a written statement calling on the people of Diyarbakır to head to the Fis Valley, a rural area of Lice where military attacks have intensified, to put their bodies on the line to stop the clashes.

Several citizens who headed to the Fis Valley area to serve as "human shields" to stop the clashes were wounded as soldiers opened fire on them. Also in the Fis Valley, a helicopter opened fire on a crowded civilian vehicle in the village of Pîrîke, wounding many.

(şg/mg/cm)