Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists who carried out the deadly attack against a Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) personnel carrier in the province of Batman on Friday had received training from U.S. soldiers on making advanced improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
On Thursday an improvised explosive planted by PKK terrorists detonated when an armored military vehicle passed through, martyring eight soldiers.
The size of the crater left behind by the Batman bombing shows that the PKK terror organization received training to upgrade their IEDs in order to be able to penetrate the fortified armors and ballistic protections capabilities of the Turkish Armed Forces’ armored personnel carriers.
Experts state that the Kobra-1 armored vehicles provide little protection against IEDs, as seen by the level of damage sustained by the personnel carrier following the Batman attack, raising calls for the wider use of the Kobra 2 and Ejder armors which are capable of withstanding such attacks.
The Batman terror attack brought back to the fore U.S. support of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The SDF is dominated by the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which follows the leftist ideology of Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that has fought a three-decade insurgency in Turkey.
A photo shared in February by anti-Daesh coalition spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon showed training provided to SDF terrorists on the use of explosives.
The tweet is an open admission that U.S. soldiers indeed provided IED training to PKK terrorists.
With their newly-acquired American training, PKK terrorists are developing new tactics to counter the measures taken by Turkey, of which the Batman terror attack was just an example of “larger scale attacks.”
The U.S. currently provides military training to PKK/PYD terrorists in 20 bases across Syria’s northeast.
It is thought that close to 150 kilograms of explosives were used in the Batman terrorist attack judging by the size of the crater left at the site.
Eight Turkish soldiers were martyred and two others wounded Thursday in the PKK terrorist attack in Batman, according to local sources.
The terrorists detonated an improvised explosive as an armored military vehicle passed by.
In a statement, the Batman Governor’s Office said four soldiers were martyred and five others were wounded in the rural area of Gercus district.
Later, four soldiers succumbed to their wounds at the Batman Regional State Hospital, said a health officer, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.
The wounded soldiers were undergoing treatment, the source added.
An operation was launched in the area to nab the terrorists responsible for the deadly attack.
In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of some 40,000 people, including women and children.
