Turkish troops and PKK terrorists clash in southeast Turkey

Three Turkish soldiers and four Kurdish militants belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were killed on Saturday in clashes in Turkey’s southeast, Reuters reported today.

The fighting took place in Hakkari province while the Turkish gendarmerie launched helicopter-backed security operations elsewhere in the region, security sources told Reuters.

Three Turkish soldiers were also wounded in clashes in the village of Agacdibi, around 20 kilometres south of Hakkari in an area bordering Iraq and Iran. An operation to capture the militants is currently underway, sources said.

In Sirnak, on the border with Iraq, several Turkish attack helicopters bombed PKK targets near the Cudi and Gabar mountains in support of land forces carrying out operations in the area.

Turkey’s southeast has seen a surge in violence since the PKK, which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in the region, abandoned a ceasefire in 2015. Since then, thousands of militants, security force members and civilians have been killed in fighting and acts of terror across Turkey.

More than 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, began its insurgency in 1984.