By Xinhua
Ankara : The number of killed militants of the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) has reached 14 in Sirnak province in southeastern Turkey, a military statement said on Wednesday.
Turkey’s General Staff said in the statement posted on its website that the continuing military operations launched by the Turkish security forces at Mount Kupeli in Sirnak province in southeastern Turkey on Tuesday have left 14 PKK members dead.
The General Staff said in a statement on Tuesday that the security forces killed six PKK militants including four women at Mount Kupeli in Sirnak province after the militants refused to surrender.
One officer of the Turkish security forces also died in the clash, said the statement, adding that further security operations in pursuit of the PKK militants are underway in the region.
Security operations are underway in southeastern and eastern Turkey as 100,000 Turkish troops massed at Turkish-Iraqi borders in preparations for a possible cross-border operation to crush about 3,000-strong PKK rebels.
The PKK, listed by the United States and Turkey as a terrorist group, took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the southeast. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the over-two-decade conflict.