More than 1,400 PKK militants ‘neutralized’ in a year: Minister

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

Turkish security forces “neutralized” 1,451 illegal PKK militants in a year, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said on Oct. 30.

Turkish authorities often use the word “neutralized” in their statements to imply that the militants in question either surrendered or were killed or captured.

“Over the past year, 1,451 PKK members, 40 members of far-left terrorist organizations were neutralized and 336 Daesh [ISIL] members were remanded in custody,” Soylu told a news briefing in the capital Ankara.

He said that in the same period, 91,297 operations were conducted against the PKK, 38,725 against FETÖ, 2,483 against ISIL and 655 against far-left groups.

FETÖ and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gülen are believed to have orchestrated the July 15, 2016 defeated coup in Turkey which left 251 people dead and nearly 2,200 injured.

More than 300 people lost their lives in ISIL-claimed attacks in Turkey, where the jihadist group has targeted civilians in suicide bomb, rocket, and gun attacks in recent years.