24 July 2006
Ayfer Serce
Crossfire
Ayfer Serçe, a young Kurdish journalist and militant, was killed during an army operation against Kurdish rebels on 24 July 2006 in Keleres, in the northeastern province of Azarbayjan.
A Turkish national, Serçe worked for the Firat Haber Ajansi (Euphrates News Agency - FHA) using the pseudonym of Silan Aras. She had gone to Azarbayjan in early July to investigate suicides by women in the region, which has a sizeable Kurdish population.
The FHA has accused the Iranian military of killing Serçe. It also reported that when her relatives went to the hospital in the nearby town of Salmas with the aim of collecting and repatriating her body on 24 July, they were told that the Iranian authorities had taken it away. The family was also stopped and searched when they arrived in the town.
