20 PKK militants killed as military foils attack on Turkish army base
Nearly two dozen members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group have been killed after Turkish military forces thwarted their assault on an army base in the country’s southeastern province of Hakkari.
The Turkish General Staff said in a statement that scores of Kurdish militants had crossed the border from Iraq’s northern and semi-autonomous Kurdistan region into southeastern Turkey on Friday, and sought to mount an attack on a military position in the Cukurca district of the province, located more than 1,000 kilometers east of the capital, Ankara.
Turkish Air Force fighter jets launched an aerial attack in response, killing 20 Kurdish militants.
Three soldiers also lost their lives and six others sustained injuries during clashes with the Kurdish militants.
A total of 275 PKK militants were killed and 23 others captured during clashes with Turkish security forces in November, according to figures compiled by Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency.
Another 19 Kurdish militants surrendered themselves to authorities.
Fourteen members of the security personnel were killed, and 18 civilians lost their lives during the mentioned period. More than 100 people were also injured.
Furthermore, 560 PKK suspects were arrested, out of whom 367 were taken into custody.
A shaky ceasefire between the PKK, which has been calling for an autonomous Kurdish region since 1984, and the Turkish government collapsed in July 2015. Attacks on Turkish security forces have soared ever since.
Over the past few months, Turkish ground and air forces have been carrying out operations against the PKK positions in the country’s troubled southeastern border region as well as northern Iraq and Syria.
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