Turkey: 100 PKK 'senior' fighters neutralized in 2018

A Turkish official speaking before the nation's parliament on Thursday said that security forces had ''neutralized'' 100 of what he referred to as "senior terrorists" of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) so far in 2018.

 ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A Turkish official speaking before the nation's parliament on Thursday said that security forces had ''neutralized'' 100 of what he referred to as "senior terrorists" of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) so far in 2018

"We carried out 87,838 operations against PKK this year. We have neutralized 1,289 terrorists in these operations," said Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu. The accuracy of the claim, carried by the staunchly pro-government Yenisafak newspaper and state media, could not be independently verified.

There was no reaction to the figures from the PKK

Turkish authorities often use the word "neutralize" in statements to refer to enemy fighters killed, captured, or incapacitated.

Soylu, who also serves as the deputy chairman of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), added that the Turkish military had increased counterterrorism operations in rural areas "173 percent" over the past two years.

Ankara, the US, and the EU label the PKK as a "terrorist organization." Their fighters, now headquartered in the Qandil Mountains of the Kurdistan Region, have been fighting an almost four-decade-long insurgency against Ankara which has resulted in over 40,000 casualties on both sides.

In addition to anti-PKK operations within Turkey, the army regularly attacks the group's fighters over the border into the Kurdistan Region. Airstrikes have killed dozens of civilians in mountainous areas of the northern Erbil and Duhok provinces since Ankara reignited its war on the PKK in mid-2015, following the collapse of peace talks between them.

“First of all, I would like to say the purpose of our military operations [in the territory of the Kurdistan Region] is to combat PKK terrorists,” Turkish Consul-General in Erbil Hakan Karacay told Kurdistan 24 on Thursday.

“It often has been seen that the PKK uses the territory of Iraq to attack Turkish forces. We believe Iraq has not done enough to stop it.”

That morning, Turkish bombardment killed three Kurdish civilians in the Amadiya (Amedi) district of Duhok province.

On Wednesday, another attack took place roughly 100 kilometers to the east of Amedi, in the Sidakan district of Erbil Province, reportedly, in response to a PKK assault on Turkish positions in the area near Turkey's border.