Turkish tanks pound Kurdish militants in week-long military campaign
Turkish tanks on December 22 pounded Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) targets in Cizre, a southeastern town at the heart of a military operation that the army said has killed 127 Kurdish militants in a week.
Black smoke rose from buildings in the town after shelling from hilltops and the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said at least 23 civilians had been killed in the violence.
A 16-year-old boy was killed in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the region, from a gunshot wound to the chest during protests against the curfews, security sources said.
In the town of Sirnak further east, a police officer was killed after militants attacked his armed vehicle, they said.
Clashes have forced tens of thousands of people to leave their homes in Sur, a historic district of Diyarbakir, which has been under curfew for three weeks, CNN Turk said, citing a report by the main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP).
Security forces launched a new offensive in the mainly Kurdish region last week after President Tayyip Erdogan pledged to root out militants.
Diyarbakir Mayor Gultan Kisanak criticised the tactics. "Tanks and heavy weaponry, which are only used in conventional warfare, are being used by the Turkish armed forces, in areas where hundreds of thousands of civilians live," Kisanak said in a statement.
A prosecutor opened an investigation against HDP leader Selahattin Demirtas, two other HDP lawmakers and two senior Kurdish politicians.
They are accused of violating anti-terrorism laws and encouraging criminal activity at a news conference last week where Demirtas urged Kurdish citizens to resist the operations. Turkish lawmakers cannot be prosecuted unless parliament first strips them of their immunity.
The towns of Cizre and Silopi, bordering Iraq and Syria, have been the focus of the campaign. Images on state media from Sur have shown Turkish troops patrolling rubble-strewn streets among buildings riddled with bullet holes.
A two-year ceasefire between the PKK and Ankara fell apart in July, shattering peace talks and reviving a conflict that has afflicted Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast for three decades, killing more than 40,000 people.
The PKK, which launched its insurgency in 1984, is designated as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.