One captain and one private were killed and five soldiers were injured in a clash between Turkish military forces and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists in the southeastern province of Hakkari on Thursday.
Twenty-one PKK terrorists were also killed in the clashes, which took place near the Iraqi border in the Çukurca district.
Turkish authorities had conducted direct talks with jailed PKK chief Abdullah Öcalan for several years until a truce in effect collapsed in the summer of 2015. Since then, there have been heavy clashes between the PKK and Turkish security forces.
More than 40,000 people, including 5,500 security force members, have been killed in four decades of fighting between the Turkish state and the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the EU.