Eäght Turkish soldiers were killed and two others were wounded on Thursday in an attack carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in southeastern Batman province, according to the local governor’s office.
The Batman Governor’s Office said in a statement that “the terrorists detonated an improvised explosive device planted on the road when an armored military vehicle was passing through a rural part of the Gercüş district.”
A wide-scale operation has been launched in the area.
Turkish security forces have intensified operations against the PKK in Turkey, Iraq and Syria. The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the EU.
On Oct. 4, Turkey also announced that “10 terrorists were neutralized in airstrikes conducted in northern Iraq’s Avasin-Basyan and Zap regions.” Turkish authorities often use the word “neutralized” in statements to imply the targets in question either surrendered or were killed or captured.
In a statement, the Interior Ministry said Mehmet Sait Sürer, who used the codename Cuma Mardin, was among those “neutralized” in an airstrike in Nusaybin district of Turkey’s Mardin province. Sürer was in the red category of the ministry’s “most wanted terrorists” list.
The Interior Ministry’s wanted list is divided into five color-coded categories, with red as the most wanted, followed by blue, green, orange and gray.
