News / Turkey

Army soldiers kill 5 PKK militants in southeastern Turkey

Friday, 15 January 2016 12:37 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 15 January 2016 3:32 AM ]

Armed militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) stand behind a barricade during clashes with Turkish forces in the Bismil district of Turkey’s southeastern province of Diyarbakir on September 28, 2015. ©AFP

The Turkish military says five members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have been killed during separate counter-terrorism operations in the troubled southeastern part of the country.

The Turkish General Staff announced in a statement on Thursday that the PKK terrorists had lost their lives in the provinces of Sirnak and Diyarbakir the previous day.

Turkish army forces also seized 121 cartridges and an unspecified number of Kalashnikov assault rifles in the town of Cizre, located about 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) southeast of the capital, Ankara, on Wednesday. Several improvised explosive devices were also destroyed.

Elsewhere in the Silopi district of Sirnak Province, Turkish forces detained at least 10 PKK terrorists and their collaborators.

The Turkish General Staff said in a statement on Tuesday that a total of 578 PKK terrorists had been killed in southeastern Turkey since December 15 last year.

A man points to destroyed cars in the Dargecit district of Turkey’s southeastern province of Mardin after a curfew imposed by the Turkish government was lifted on December 30, 2015. ©AFP

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 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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