Security forces killed 58 PKK militants last week: Turkish military

ANKARA

AA photo

Turkish security forces killed 58 outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants during last week’s operations, the military said in a statement on Aug. 18.        

The Turkish General Staff said the militants were killed in Turkey’s southeastern provinces of Şırnak and Hakkari.
        
Seven Turkish soldiers were also killed and 12 were injured in the course of the counterterrorism operations.        

A large amount of illegal firearms and ammunition were seized, including anti-aircraft rounds, rocket-propelled grenades and a sniper rifle.        

In addition, 2,500 kilograms of ammonium nitrate used for making explosives, 38 hand grenades, two anti-tank rounds and over 118,000 packets of contraband cigarettes were also found.        

Eight PKK shelters and depots were destroyed.        

Meanwhile, five PKK militants were killed during an operation early August in eastern Kars province, the Kars Governor’s Office announced on Aug. 17.        

In a written statement, the governor’s office said five militants were killed during an air-supported operation in the countryside of Kağızman district between Aug. 7 and Aug. 8.        

Separately, a soldier succumbed to his wounds following clashes with PKK militants in the southern province of Hatay on Aug. 17, a hospital source said.       
 
The soldier died at the Iskenderun State Hospital after he got injured in an operation in the province’s Amanos Mountains’ rural areas, the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said. 

Moreover, two PKK militants detonated themselves after being cornered in a village house where they were hiding by security forces, according to the Tunceli Governor’s Office.

On Aug. 18, the province’s gendarmerie forces started an operation against Maoist Communist Party (MKP) militants in Tunceli’s Hozat district, the governor’s office said in a statement.

“In the Yenidoğdu village of Hozat, the terrorists of the MKP did not accept to surrender and two terrorists blew themselves up in the bathroom of the house with hand bombs. Two dead male terrorists, one Kalashnikov infantry rifle, three magazines, three hand bombs and a handmade explosive device were seized in the scene,” it said.