5 security forces martyred in clashes, 12 terrorists killed

Clashes erupted late Wednesday after a group of terrorists fired long-range weapons and rockets at a military unit in Siirt province, the military said in a statement on its official website. Four soldiers were injured in the attack, and two of them died while being evacuated, the military said.

Separately, another terrorist group ambushed government-paid village guards who were surveilling a road in the area, killing three of the guards, the military said.

The military immediately sent unmanned drones to the region, and attack helicopters fired on terrorists trying to escape, the statement said. The armed forces recovered 12 bodies of suspected terrorists, it said.

The terrorists have escalated attacks recently.

Twenty-two soldiers have died in attacks in the past two weeks. The military says 42 terrorists of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, have been killed in clashes in June.

The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

Many of the terrorists stage hit-and-run attacks from bases in northern Iraq. The violence has claimed the lives of some 40,000 since 1984.

The military said an operation was under way to catch the terrorists who had escaped.