News / Turkey

Turkish army kills 27 militants in restive southeast

Monday, 04 April 2016 4:34 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 04 April 2016 7:27 AM ]

Armed female Kurdish militants are seen behind a barricade in the Sur district of Diyarbakir Province, November 18, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

The Turkish military says at least 27 members of a militant group have been killed during military operations in the troubled southeastern part of Turkey.

The Turkish General Staff announced in a statement on Sunday that militants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) had been killed in separate operations in the provinces of Hakkari, Mardin and Sirnak the previous day.

Seventeen PKK militants, the Turkish military said, died during heavy clashes in the Kurdish-populated city of Yuksekova in Hakkari Province, located 1,026 kilometers (638 miles) east of the capital, Ankara.

Elsewhere, in the southeastern city of Nusaybin, situated 792 kilometers (492 miles) east of Ankara, Turkish soldiers killed six PKK militants, according to the Turkish military, which said four other PKK members were also killed during military operations in various districts of Sirnak Province.

Turkish military forces also seized 92 rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) rounds, 5,500 Dragunov sniper rifle bullets and 137 grenades during a search operation in the Cukurca district of Hakkari Province.

A ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish government collapsed last July, and militant attacks on Turkish security forces have soared ever since.

People walk among rubble and damaged buildings in the Sur district of Diyarbakir Province, in southeastern Turkey, December 11, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

Turkey has been engaged in a large-scale campaign against the PKK in its southern border region in the past few months. The Turkish military has also been conducting offensives against the positions of the group in northern Iraq and Syria.

The operations began in the wake of a deadly July 2015 bombing in the southern Turkish town of Suruc. More than 30 people died in the attack, which the Turkish government blamed on the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group.

After the bombing, the PKK militants, who accuse the government in Ankara of supporting Daesh, engaged in a series of supposed reprisal attacks against Turkish police and security forces, in turn prompting the Turkish military operations.

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