Off the wire
• Obama visits San Bernardino shooting victims' families  • Gut claims downhill in Val d'Isere  • Yearender: Abe's revisionism summons old ghosts to haunt Japan's future  • Schempp wins 12.5km pursuit  • Traditional Chinese drum show stages in Colombia  • Crisis-hit Toshiba to announce record losses amid major restructuring push  • Beijing to start trials of regional bus pass  • Chinese, Thai leaders exchange congratulatory messages on commencement of joint railway project  • 1st LD Writethru: India's Sonia Gandhi, son Rahul get bail in corruption case  • Four militants killed in eastern Afghan clash  
You are here: 　 Home

68 PKK members killed in military operations in SE Turkey

Xinhua, December 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

At least 68 militants of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) have been killed in ongoing military operations in southeastern Turkey over the last four days, a security official said Saturday.

The Turkish security forces had been launching operations in the towns of Cizre and Silopi in Sirnak province in southeastern Turkey over the last four days, the state-run Anatolia news agency quoted the official as saying.

The operations also left one Turkish soldier dead and 22 other Turkish soldiers and police officers wounded, according to the report.

The PKK negotiated a cease-fire with Ankara in 2013, but the truce fell apart in the wake of a suicide bomb attack in the border town of Suruc in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa on July 20, in which 33 pro-Kurdish and left-wing activists were killed.

Tensions have been running high, especially in southeastern Turkey, as major military operations against PKK militants have been under way since July after the truce failed.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States. Endit