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Interior Ministry: 35 PKK militants neutralized in one week

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The Turkish Interior Ministry announced on Monday that a total of 35 outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists have been neutralized across Turkey over the past week.

According to the ministry statement, Turkish security forces killed 17 PKK members and detained seven. Eleven PKK members surrendered to security forces in the same period.

During the operations Turkish security forces detained 243 people on charges of aiding and abetting the PKK.

A total of 57 Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) members were also detained in the one-week period.

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.

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