At least 32 armed elements of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, terror organization have been killed in the southeastern Turkish provinces of Van, Hakkari and Siirt, security sources said on Tuesday.
The day-long operation came after a week of killing 16 Turkish soldiers in an ambush planned by the PKK militants in the Dağlıca town of Hakkari.
According to military sources, a large number of soldiers along with military helicopters conducted anti-PKK operations in rural areas between Tunceli, Ovacık, Pülümür and Erzincan. The operations continue in several mountainous areas of Hakkari, Van and Siirt.
Seventeen PKK militants have been killed in operations in an area between Tunceli and Erzincan, while 5 others were killed in Hakkari.
In a related operation, the Turkish army killed 6 terrorists in the Eruh district of Siirt and 3 others in the Pervari district.
Another PKK member has been killed in the eastern province of Van.
Operations are still continuing, sources said.
Meanwhile, scores of PKK militants have been detained in the Viranşehir district of the border province of Şanlıurfa.
After receiving a tip-off that a group of terrorists were scheming to launch a bomb attack in the city, the Şanlıurfa Police Department launched an operation in a park of Viranşehir and detained two terrorists while they were planning to place a bomb there.
Police units then widened the raid by conducting search operations in 35 addresses and arrested 20 PKK suspects. Police identified that five among the detainees had organized several bomb attacks on police vehicles in the district.
