Turkey kills over 30 PKK militants in cross-border raid: Erdogan
Iran Press TV
Tue Sep 29, 2015 2:19PM
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says over 30 militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) have been killed in a cross-border offensive by the country's army.
'We have had cross-border operations overnight and more than 30 PKK militants have been killed. These will continue for now but you should know that this is their last struggle,' Erdogan said on Tuesday.
'Our security forces are continuing with their operations both inside and outside the country,' he added without disclosing the exact location of operations.
The Turkish military has been conducting offensives against alleged positions of the Takfiri Daesh terrorists in northern Syria as well as those of the PKK in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey.
The security operations began in the wake of the deadly July 20 bombing in the southern Turkish town of Suruc, an ethnically Kurdish town located close to the Kurdish town of Kobani on the other side of the border in Syria, where over 30 people died. The Turkish government blamed Daesh for the bombing.
In a separate development on Tuesday, the Turkish army said six Kurdish militants were killed in gunbattles in the southeastern province of Hakkari overnight.
The military also killed 19 PKK militants in air raids last Friday in northern Iraq.
However, it was not clear if Erdogan and the armed forces were pointing to the same operation.
Earlier in September, Turkey's Special Forces entered Iraq to chase PKK militants as part of an 'anti-terrorist' operation aimed at pushing the PKK out of its strongholds.
The PKK in response has been carrying out almost daily bombings and shootings since July, killing dozens of police and soldiers in Turkey.
The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s. The conflict has left tens of thousands of people dead.
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