News / Turkey

Turkish army kills 19 PKK militants in restive southeast

Sunday, 17 January 2016 6:44 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 17 January 2016 6:45 AM ]

Militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) man a barricade in the Sur district of Turkey’s southeastern province of Diyarbakir on November 18, 2015. ©AFP

The Turkish military says at least 19 members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have been killed during separate military operations in the troubled southeastern part of the country.

The Turkish General Staff announced in a statement on Saturday that the PKK militants had died in the provinces of Sirnak and Diyarbakir two days earlier.

Twelve PKK militants died during heavy clashes in the town of Cizre, located about 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) southeast of the capital, Ankara.

Turkish military forces also seized three Kalashnikov assault rifles, two pistols, two hand grenades, 16 Molotov cocktails and several other munitions after the fighting. Nearly 15 improvised explosive devices were defused as well.

Elsewhere in the Silopi district of Sirnak Province, Turkish soldiers killed five PKK militants. Eight hand grenades were also neutralized in the operation.

Two other PKK members died during military operations in Sur district of Diyarbakir Province.

Additionally, a 39-year-old police officer, identified as Yalcin Yamaner, was killed during an operation against PKK militants in Turkey’s southeastern city of Siirt.

A girl stands at the entrance of a damaged house in the Sur district of Turkey’s restive southeastern province of Diyarbakir on December 11, 2015. ©AFP

Security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said four policemen sustained gunshot wounds during skirmishes in the city. They were transported to Siirt Public Hospital, where Yamaner later succumbed to his grave injuries.

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

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

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

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