News / Turkey

Turkish aerial attacks kill nearly 60 PKK militants in northern Iraq

Friday, 27 January 2017 5:44 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 27 January 2017 7:26 PM ]

This file photo shows an F-16 fighter jet of the Turkish Air Force in flight.

Nearly five dozen members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) have been killed when Turkish military aircraft carried out a string of aerial attacks against the militants’ positions in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

The Turkish General Staff announced in a statement on Friday that at least 57 PKK terrorists were killed and scores of others injured between January 13 and 14 as Turkish warplanes bombarded their hideouts in the Metina area.

On January 16, four Turkish police officers were killed and two others injured in a roadside bomb explosion that targeted their patrol vehicle in Turkey’s southeastern and Kurdish-populated province of Diyarbakir.

A security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said PKK militants detonated the bomb near an excavation site in the Sur district of the province, situated 676 kilometers east of the capital, Ankara, as a police vehicle was passing by.

A total of 110 PKK militants were killed and 42 others captured during clashes with Turkish security forces in December last year, according to figures compiled by Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency.

Another 18 Kurdish militants surrendered themselves to authorities.

Militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) seen as they attack Turkish security forces in Nusaybin, Turkey, on March 1, 2016. (Photo by AP)

Fifty-five members of the security personnel were killed, and 10 civilians lost their lives during the mentioned period.

Furthermore, 1,146 PKK suspects were arrested, out of whom 604 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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