Turkish army kills 1,250 militants in southeast

DİYARBAKIR

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Turkey’s military has killed at least 1,250 militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) so far during counter-terrorism operations in the country’s southeast, according to numbers compiled from data provided by security sources.Since July 2015, an estimated 1,250 militants have been killed in Turkey’s Nusaybin, Dargeçit and Derik districts of the southeastern Mardin province, Silvan and Sur districts of the southeastern Diyarbakır province along with the Silopi, Cizre and İdil districts of the southeastern Şırnak province of Şırnak and the Varto district of the eastern Muş province, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. The report came amid a fresh PKK offensive in İdil that killed a Turkish soldier on March 6.There have been scores of security force causalities during counter-terrorism operations in the country’s southeast, as well.“We lost 219 of our security forces killed between July 20, 2015, and March 2, 2016,” Turkish Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz said during a parliamentary session late March 5 when asked to comment on casualties of Turkish security personnel since the collapse of peace talks between the government and the outlawed group in late July.“That was right to start the [Kurdish] peace process. This is true. That was true today and will be so tomorrow,” Yılmaz added.The joint operations carried out by the Turkish Army and security forces in the southeast aim to “clear” the cities of PKK terrorists, along with their barricades and ditches amid curfews.The number of ditches and barricades removed in the operations in counter-terrorism operations has reached 2,307 in total, 85 of which took place in Dargeçit, 22 in Silvan, 788 in Silopi, 951 in Cizre, 24 in Derik, 52 in Nusaybin, 174 in İdil and 211 in Sur.