News / Turkey

1,250 PKK militants killed in SE Turkey since last July: Report

Sunday, 06 March 2016 7:23 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 06 March 2016 7:21 AM ]

A flag of Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) hangs on a barricade as armed Kurdish militants man a barricade in the Sur district of Diyarbakir Province, southeastern Turkey, on November 18, 2015. ©AFP

The Turkish military says over 1,000 members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have been killed since operations against the militants started in the country’s troubled southeastern regions last July.

According to the data published by the state-run Anadolu news agency on Saturday, 1,250 Kurdish militants were killed during offensives in the southeastern city of Nusaybin, Dargecit and Derik districts in Mardin Province, Silvan and Sur districts of Diyarbakir Province, Varto district of Mus Province as well as Silopi, Cizre and Idil districts of Sirnak Province.

The report added that 2,307 ditches and barricades were also removed in the anti-PKK operations across Turkey.

Moreover, nearly 3,000 improvised explosive devices planted in houses, gardens and on roads have been dismantled in the operations.

The report, however, did not give the number of army soldiers killed in the anti-PKK offensives so far.

On March 4, two Turkish army troopers lost their lives when PKK members mounted an ambush in the town of Idil near the border with conflict-stricken Syria.

A man walks along a road damaged in the fighting between Turkish government troops and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants in the Kurdish town of Silopi, southeastern Turkey, on January 19, 2016. ©AFP

Earlier in the day, two police officers were killed in a car bomb attack carried out by the PKK in Nusaybin. The Mardin Governor’s Office said in a statement that 35 people, including two civilians, were injured in the bombing.

Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has strongly slammed Ankara’s military campaign in the Kurdish-populated areas, saying the Turkish military is slaughtering people there.

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

Ankara 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.

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 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, prompting the Turkish military operations.

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