6 PKK terrorists killed in SE Turkey and northern Iraq

By Mehmet Tosun

SIIRT, Turkey

Six PKK terrorists were killed in operations on Sunday in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq, the Turkish army said Monday.

The Turkish General Staff announced on its website that a PKK terrorist was killed in an airstrike in the Lice district of south-eastern Turkey’s Diyarbakir province where a rocket launcher, a machine gun and a rifle were also seized.

Five PKK terrorists who were planning a terror attack in northern Iraq’s Zap region were killed in a separate airstrike, said the statement.

A machine rifle, 590 cartridges, 1,104 machine gun bullets, 90 improvised explosives, three rocket launchers have been seized in Sunday’s operations in southeastern Turkey's Sirnak Beytussebap distirict. Operation still continues.

A car loaded with explosives was also destroyed in the Gurpinar region of eastern Turkey's Van province.

The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July 2015.

Since then, PKK terrorists have martyred nearly 800 members of security forces and claimed the lives of over 310 civilians, including women and children, while more than 10,000 PKK terrorists have been killed or apprehended in army operations.