The Turkish Interior Ministry announced on Monday that a total of 642 outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists have been neutralized in 4,786 operations across Turkey over the past five months.
According to the ministry’s statement, Turkish security forces killed 316 PKK members, while 187 of them were detained. In the same period 33 PKK members surrendered to security forces. During the 541 operations last week, security forces detained 222 on charges of aiding and abetting the PKK.
Seventy-two Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) members have been detained and two have been killed over the past five months, according to the ministry.
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.