Military helicopter possibly downed by PKK: Army
10:58, 19/05/2016, Thursday
Yeni Şafak
Army says Cobra helicopter may have been hit by PKK strike
An attack helicopter which crashed in a recent clash on Turkey's border with Iraq may have been shot down by an air defense system used by Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorists, the Turkish military declared Thursday.
In a statement it released on its official site nearly a week after the incident
, the General Staff said the helicopter, sent to the town of Çukurca to support soldiers in combat, could have been struck by PKK .
The military was referring to May 13 clashes that sparked after PKK struck a border post near Çukurca in the southeastern province of Hakkari. In the combat, eight soldiers and two pilots on the chopper were killed while 13 soldiers were injured. Thirteen PKK terrorists were neutralized.
The initial statements suggested the crash was related to a technical fault. The investigation is still in progress to ascertain the cause of the crash definitively.
The army said that it is believed the military helicopter was downed by an air defense system weapon, most probably a surface-to-air missile.
Thursday's statement comes after unconfirmed reports that PKK have armed with man-portable air-defense systems, known as shoulder-to-air missiles (SAM) or Manpads.