Turkey 'Neutralizes' 65 Wanted Militants In 2018 - Interior Minister

The Turkish forces have killed, captured or forced to surrender 65 militants, who were on the authorities' wanted list, in 2018, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th September, 2018) The Turkish forces have killed, captured or forced to surrender 65 militants, who were on the authorities' wanted list, in 2018, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Tuesday.

"Last year, we neutralized 63 terrorists in this [wanted terrorist] list. Before the end of this year, our sons [security personnel] neutralized 65 terrorists," Soylu said as quoted by Anadolu news agency.

The list of wanted terrorists is divided into five color-coded categories, where red means that a terrorist is the most wanted followed by blue, green, orange and gray, according to the media outlet.

Turkish security forces carry out operations to neutralize militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist organization in Turkey, on a daily basis. The group has been engaged in an armed conflict with Ankara since 1984 over Kurds' autonomy aspirations. In 2015, tensions escalated amid a ceasefire collapse over a number of terror attacks allegedly committed by the PKK.

Over the past three months, Turkish forces have killed or captured 760 militants linked to PKK.