News / Turkey

Security forces kill 11 PKK militants in southeast Turkey

Tuesday, 15 December 2015 5:42 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 15 December 2015 5:45 AM ]

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

Nearly a dozen members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have been killed after Turkish security forces launched separate operations against the militants in the country’s restive southeastern province of Mardin.

Turkish officials said six PKK militants were killed in the town of Dargecit, situated around 43 kilometers (27 miles) north of the border with Syria, late on Monday.

The Kurdish militants reportedly launched 18 rocket attacks on security forces, leaving three police officers and as many civilians injured.

The development came only hours after Turkish security personnel killed five PKK members in the same town. Three civilians, including a child, also sustained injuries during the operation.

Ankara has been engaged in a large-scale military campaign against the PKK in its southern border region in the recent past. The Turkish military has also been conducting offensives against the positions of the PKK in northern Iraq.

People walk among rubble and damaged buildings in the Sur district of Turkey’s southeastern city of Diyarbakir on November 11, 2015. (© AFP)

The operations began in the wake of a deadly July 20 bombing in the southern Turkish town of Suruc, located close to border with Syria. More than 30 people died in the Suruc attack, which the Turkish government blamed on Takfiri Daesh terrorist group.

After the bombing in Suruc, the PKK militants, who accuse the government in Ankara of supporting Daesh, engaged in a series of supposed reprisal attacks against Turkish police and security forces, in turn prompting the Turkish military operations.

The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since 1984. A shaky ceasefire between Ankara and the PKK that had stood since 2013 was declared null and void following the Turkish military campaign against the militant group.

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