3 police injured in anti-terror sweep in eastern Turkey

By Necat Hazar

VAN, Turkey (AA) - Three police officers were injured in a counter-terrorism operation in eastern Turkey on Friday, a police official said.

The officers were wounded by a grenade during a raid on a suspected PKK address in Ercis, a town on the north shore of Lake Van, the official said on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media.

Police swooped as a PKK terror cell prepared an attack, the official said. One terrorist was killed in the operation and two others were arrested.

The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July last year. Since then nearly 800 security force personnel have been martyred and more than 310 civilians, including women and children, have been killed.

More than 10,000 PKK terrorists have been killed or apprehended over the same period.