By Sarp Ozer

ANKARA

Turkish security forces “neutralized” 13 PKK terrorists during a clash in the southeastern province of Hakkari on Monday the country's General Staff said Tuesday.

The operation -- backed by the Turkish Air Force -- is ongoing in the province's rural Cukurca district.

In addition, PKK shelters and mortar emplacements in the Hisar and Guven Mountain areas of Cukurca were hit by airstrikes.

Separately, another PKK shelter in the eastern province of Erzurum was also destroyed.

Turkish fighter jets also destroyed 12 other PKK targets in Iraq's north and Cukurca.

The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July last year.

Since then, PKK terrorist attacks martyred more than 700 security personnel and also claimed the lives of many civilians, including women and children, while nearly 8,000 PKK terrorists were killed in army operations.