Turkey: 33 PKK terrorists killed in past week

ANKARA

A total of 33 PKK terrorists were killed over the past week as part of ongoing anti-terrorism operations nationwide, according to an official statement issued Monday.

The Interior Ministry’s statement said security forces had conducted 456 operations against the terrorist organization between April 3 and 10.

The statement added that 43 terrorists were neutralized - 33 of them were killed, eight were captured alive and two others surrendered in a week.

Dozens of the suspects were also detained on charges of entertaining relations with terrorist organizations -- 77 allegedly with Daesh, 1,963 with the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) and PYD, 76 with leftist terrorist groups and 570 others for aiding and abetting terror organization.

In the southeastern and eastern provinces of Batman, Bingol, Bitlis, Diyarbakir, Mardin, Sirnak, Erzurum, Hakkari, Van, Igdir, Siirt and Tunceli, 61 shelters and caves used by terrorists were destroyed and 52 hand-made explosives and mines were annihilated.

Security forces also seized 107 weapons, including 68 heavy and long-barrel firearms. In addition, over one ton of explosive material were seized.

Meanwhile, more than four tons of hashish and a total of 36,571 million pills were also seized in 585 operations against drug trafficking in 73 provinces.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and the EU. It has waged a terror campaign against Turkey for more than 30 years, during which more than 40,000 people have been killed.

Since the group resumed its armed campaign in July 2015, more than 1,200 people, including security personnel and civilians, have lost their lives.

Reporting by Cankut Tasdan;Writing by Fatma Bulbul