The Turkish Interior Ministry announced on Monday that a total of 57 Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists have been neutralized across Turkey over the past week.
According to the ministry statement, Turkish security forces killed 39 PKK members and 15 PKK members surrendered to security forces in the same period, while three PKK militants were captured.
In the meantime, four terrorists who were planning an attack on military bases on the border were killed on Monday in Iraq’s Zap region during air operations.
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.