Turkey Neutralizes Almost 400 PKK Militants In Anti-Terror Raids Over 3 Months - Reports

Turkish forces have either killed or captured a total of 396 militants affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Ankara regards as a terrorist organization, in both domestic and cross-border operations in the past three months, media reported on Thursday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th September, 2019) Turkish forces have either killed or captured a total of 396 militants affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Ankara regards as a terrorist organization, in both domestic and cross-border operations in the past three months, media reported on Thursday.

From June 1-August 31, as many as 28 Turkish security forces, eight civilians, including children, were killed in PKK terrorist attacks, while 40 people more were wounded, the Anadolu news agency reported.

During the given period, the country's security forces detained over 1,000 people for suspected links to the PKK, and about 130 of them are still in custody, the media said.

According to the news agency, Serif Yakut, a terrorist from the most-wanted category of the Interior Ministry's list, is among those 396 eliminated in the last three months.

Ankara has been fighting the PKK, which seeks to establish a Kurdish autonomy in Turkey, since the 1980s. In 2013, they agreed on a ceasefire but it collapsed two years later when Ankara blamed several terrorist attacks on PKK militants.

Turkish security forces carry out regular anti-PKK raids across the country. In late May, Ankara launched Operation Claw targeting PKK militants in northern Iraq.