Up to 12 killed in massive operation on Kurdish rebels
DIYARBAKIR (Turkey) - Six Kurdish
rebels and six policemen have been killed during a massive operation
targeting PKK militants in southeastern Turkey, security sources said on
Thursday.
Backed by helicopters and fighter jets,
thousands of security forces, including police and the army, were
participating in the largest anti-rebel operation so far this year which
began on Tuesday, they said.
The clashes were still continuing Thursday on the outskirts of Mount Cudi in Sirnak province, near the Syrian and Iraqi border.
Special
police forces have lately played a much bigger role in the fight
against the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a task mostly handled
by soldiers in the past.
The operation is the biggest
since Turkish air strikes killed 34 Kurdish smugglers near the Iraqi
border in December when commanders mistook them for PKK fighters.
Most of the victims were less than 20 years old.
Turkey
in October launched a major air and land offensive against the rebels
in the southeast of the country and in northern Iraq after 24 of its
troops were killed in a night-time ambush by rebels.
In recent months, the government has also intensified pressure on alleged sympathisers of Kurdish separatist rebels.
The drive is part of a crackdown on the banned Kudish Communities Union (KCK), suspected to be the political wing of the PKK.
Turkish
authorities accuse the group of trying to topple state institutions in
the south and southeast and trying to foment a rebellion.
Since
2009, about 700 people -- including lawmakers, intellectuals and mayors
-- have been arrested for alleged links to the KCK, according to the
government. Kurdish sources however put the number at around 3,500.
The
PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and by much of the
international community, took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern
Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives.
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