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3 PKK militants killed in southeast Turkey clashes

This file photo shows PKK militants walking in the streets of Sinjar, Iraq. (AP photo)

Three members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militant group have been killed in clashes with Turkish security forces in the volatile southeastern part of the country.

Security sources said on Tuesday that clashes erupted in Diyarbakir Province’s town of Silvan, where militants of the PKK's youth wing dug trenches to prevent police from entering some areas. A 22-year-old man was fatally shot in the confrontation.

Three neighborhoods were immediately placed under curfew.

In a separate incident, two other militants of the PKK youth branch were killed in the town of Yuksekova in Hakkari Province.

Earlier, the Turkish army said it had targeted PKK bases in both Hakkari near the Iraqi border and several regions in northern Iraq.

This file photo shows Turkish special police force in Diyarbakir Province. (AFP photo)

 

The Turkish military has been conducting operations against the alleged positions of the Takfiri Daesh terrorists in northern Syria as well as those of the PKK in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey.

The operations began in the wake of a deadly July 20 bombing in the southern Turkish town of Suruc, where over 30 people died. The Turkish government blamed Daesh for the bombing.

Ankara’s military campaign against the PKK ended a shaky ceasefire that had been declared in 2013.

On Tuesday, Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) called on the PKK to maintain their ceasefire and urged the government to end military and police operations.

The HDP, along with other pro-Kurdish groups, put forward the call in a statement after a meeting to assess the results of Sunday's election, which was won by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP).

"We expect the government to halt all military and police operations and show the will for the ceasefire to become mutual," the statement said.

HDP has been accused of siding with the PKK, which has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s.


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