Provincial Governor Irfan Balkanlioglu said the terrorists were spotted and shot dead during a Friday counter-terrorism operation in the Mesudiye district of the province, situated approximately 435 kilometers east of the capital Ankara.

Balkanlioglu added that an M16 and five AK-47 assault rifles besides several hand grenades and documents were seized from the slain Kurdish militants.

Also on Friday, a paramilitary policeman was killed and two others sustained injuries when PKK militants detonated by a remote-controlled bomb they had planted earlier on the side of a road linking the southeastern Turkish town of Sirnak to Cizre.

Ambulances rushed to the scene following the explosion, and transferred the wounded soldiers to Sirnak State Hospital.

The developments came a day after three paramilitary policemen were killed and two others injured in a PKK militant attack in the Yuksekova district of the southeastern province of Hakkari.

A shaky ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish government collapsed in July 2015, and attacks on Turkish security forces have soared ever since.

Over the past few months, Turkish ground and air forces have been carrying out operations against PKK positions in the country’s troubled southeastern region border as well as Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region and northern Syria.

The campaign was launched after more than 30 civilians lost their lives in a July 2015 bomb attack in the southern Turkish town of Suruc. Turkish authorities held the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group accountable for the act of terror.

PKK militants, who accuse the Ankara government of sponsoring Daesh, mounted a series of supposed reprisal attacks against Turkish security forces after the bombing, prompting the Turkish military operations.

The PKK, which has been calling for an autonomous Kurdish region since 1984, has since carried out several attacks on police and military posts in the largely Kurdish region; Press TV reported.

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