Mother recalls pain of losing son in PKK terror attack

By Yusuf Bati

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (AA) – It’s been year since Kadriye Simpil lost her teenaged son to a bomb planted by the PKK terrorist group, but not a day goes by without her feeling the pain of her tragic loss.

Her son Firat Simpil was only 13-years-old when he was killed by a roadside bomb while he was on way to a local market in southeastern Diyarbakir province on August 30, 2015. Authorities had held the PKK terrorist group for the attack.

"Although it's been a year now since my son was killed, the pain in my heart is just like the first day [I learnt about it]," the mother said.

"After that terrible incident, I have always wanted to leave this house as it makes me remember that day every time I walk out of the house," she said.

She said she had sent her son to the market to only buy some food. But instead the family received a mutilated body. "The explosion happened just as an armored vehicle was passing by," she recalled.

"I realized that my son was at the scene as well. I started screaming… I rushed to the scene of explosion with my elder son. I saw a severed hand lying on the ground," she cried.

"Later, people said there was a body under the vehicle… It was difficult to identify as the body, but I recognized my son," she said.

The PKK -- also listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the EU -- resumed its 30-year armed campaign against the Turkish state in July 2015.

Since then, more than 600 security personnel, including troops, police officers and village guards, have been martyred and over 7,000 PKK terrorists killed or “neutralized” in operations across Turkey and northern Iraq.