The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) says its forces have killed over a dozen Turkish troops during an attack targeting a military convoy in the country’s southeast.
The militant group ambushed the armored convoy in the southeastern Yüksekova district "from several sides" leaving "15 soldiers" dead, while "a large number of weapons were seized in the action," read a statement posted online on Sunday.
Turkey has not confirmed the number of casualties, but during a televised speech, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed that an incident had occurred in the Hakkâri province.
According to reports, Turkish fighter planes carried out a retaliatory attack on at least 10 PKK positions, including on those associated with today’s attack.
Two Turkish policemen were also killed in a PKK rocket attack in the district of Sur in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir earlier in the day.
Turkey has been launching airstrikes against purported Daesh targets in Syria as well as PKK positions in Iraq, after a bomb attack on July 20 left 32 people dead in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruç, which lies across the border from the northern Syrian town of Kobani.
A shaky ceasefire that had stood since 2013 was declared null by the PKK following the Turkish airstrikes, narrowing chances of a peace deal in the near future.
The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s. The conflict has left tens of thousands of people dead.
“A new strategy will be adopted in the fight against terror. We’ll continue with determination,” said Erdogan, apparently in reference to PKK; Press TV reported.
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