Twelve more PKK militants slain in southeast Turkey

At least 12 members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have been killed in Turkish military strikes in the southeastern part of Turkey.

The Turkish General Staff, in a statement released on Monday, said two PKK militants were killed during operations in the Kurdish-populated city of Yuksekova in Hakkari Province, located 1,026 kilometers (638 miles) east of the capital, Ankara, earlier in the day.

Turkish troopers also reportedly defused a number of roadside bombs and improvised explosive devices in the operations.

PKK militants mounted three separate attacks on Turkish border guards and security personnel in the Semdinli district of Hakkari Province. Eight Kurdish militants were killed as they engaged in fierce exchanges of gunfire with Turkish forces.

Additionally, Turkish military forces reportedly defused six improvised explosive devices placed under a bridge in the district.

Turkish police sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least two PKK militants were also killed in an operation in Turkey’s southeastern province of Diyarbakir on Monday.

Meanwhile, six Turkish soldiers sustained injuries in an explosion that targeted their vehicle in Diyarbakir Province.

Turkish officials, requesting not to be named, said the troopers were traveling in the Kocakoy district of the province when their car touched off an improvised explosive device, triggering the blast.

Turkey’s Interior Minister Selami Altinok said on Monday that more than 2,000 PKK members have been killed in military operations across the country since July 22.

Operations within and without Turkey

Turkey has been engaged in one of its biggest military operations in its southern border region in the recent past.

The Turkish military has also been conducting offensives against the alleged positions of the Takfiri Daesh terrorists in northern Syria as well as those of the PKK in northern Iraq. The operations began in the wake of a deadly July 20 bombing in the southern Turkish town of Suruc, an ethnically Kurdish town located close to the Kurdish town of Kobani on the other side of the border in Syria, where over 30 people died. Ankara blamed Daesh for the bombing but the Kurds deemed the Turkish government responsible for the attack over its support for Daesh.

According to a report by the Hurriyet daily, over 150 Turkish military and police officers have been killed since July in armed attacks blamed on the PKK.

On September 17, the PKK declared as null and void a unilateral ceasefire with the government in Ankara, accusing it of waging the military operations against the group to gain more votes in the November 1 snap elections.

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

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