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Clashes between Turkish forces, PKK militants leave 5 dead

File photo shows members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party.

At least five people have been killed in clashes between Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants and Turkish security forces in southeastern Turkey. 

According to a Turkish security source, four Kurds, including two boys aged seven and 10, died in hospital of gunshot wounds they sustained during the clashes in the district of Cizre in Sirnak Province on Thursday.

The source went on to say that at least six others, including three Turkish soldiers, were wounded in the fighting.

The security source also noted that the fighting between the two sides broke out after the PKK militants launched a rocket attack against a military outpost in the area.

Turkey’s army said in a statement that a Turkish soldier was also killed and four others injured during clashes between PKK militants and Turkish security forces guarding a highway between the district of Lice in Diyarbakir Province and the province of Bingol in eastern Turkey.

Reports say that heavy fighting is underway between Turkish forces and PKK militants in the district of Yuksekova in the province of Hakkari.

The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s. The conflict has left tens of thousands of people dead.

There has been renewed conflict between the PKK and Turkish security forces since July.

Turkey has been launching airstrikes against purported Daesh targets in Syria as well as PKK positions in Iraq, after a Daesh bomb attack left 32 people dead on July 20 in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc, across the border from the northern Syrian town of Kobani.

A shaky ceasefire that had stood since 2013 was declared as null and void by the PKK following the Turkish airstrikes against the group.


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