News / Turkey

Over 300 PKK militants slain in Turkey in less than 1 month: Army

Thursday, 07 January 2016 5:59 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 07 January 2016 6:00 AM ]

PKK militants stand behind a barricade of concrete blocks during clashes with Turkish forces at the Bismil district, Diyarbakir Province, Sept. 28, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

The Turkish military says 305 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have been killed during operations in the country's troubled southeast in less than a month.

Two PKK militants were killed in the Sur district of Diyarbakir Province on Tuesday, the Turkish General Staff said in a statement.

The district has been under police curfew since December 2, 2015, and operations are ongoing there.

Four other PKK militants were slain in the town of Cizre on Tuesday. A sizable amount of assault rifles and munitions was seized, and 21 improvised explosive devices were defused during the Cizre operation.

Additionally, three PKK terrorists were killed on Tuesday in the Silopi district of Sirnak Province.

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

Ankara has been engaged in a large-scale campaign against the PKK in its southern border region in the recent past. The Turkish military has also been conducting offensives against the group's positions in northern Iraq.

The operations began in the wake of a deadly July 20, 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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