After the Turkish interior minister announced on Tuesday that ‘two terrorists were killed as they were trying to illegally cross the Iranian-Turkish border’, a Twitter user claimed on Friday that the two were civilians.

Minister Süleyman Soylu had said in his tweet:

“Two terorists, one of them an Iranian national, were neutralised by our valiant gendarmerie troops in the operation Eren-Abluka-22 in Damlacık countryside in Özalp district of the province of Van, as they have infiltrated Turkey. We call on terrorists yet again: Surrender; otherwise these lands will bring only death to you!”

While the information provided by Soylu was reported widely in Turkish news outlets, Bahtiyar Kandeğer, a Twitter user with 338 followers, replied to Soylu’s tweet a few days later, saying that he was from the village of Damlacık, the village mentioned in Soylu’s tweet.

‘This is my village. One of the fatalities is a person named Peyman. He’s from the village of Xoy/Beğleci and my villagers all know him well,” he said.

“Locals believe that the other fatality is a refugee. Families now want to claim the remains, but there are no remains to be claimed.”