Eight security personnel, including six soldiers and two security guards, were killed in an armed standoff between the Turkish Armed Forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the southeastern province of Hakkari’s Şemdinli district early on Wednesday.
Five PKK militants, who were part of the group that sought to benefit from the foggy and rainy weather, were killed in the fight, and an operation supported by choppers began in the area afterwards.
Turkish authorities had conducted direct talks with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) jailed chieftain Abdullah Öcalan for several years until a truce in effect collapsed in the summer of 2015. Since then, there have been heavy clashes between the PKK and Turkish security forces.
More than 40,000 people, including 5,500 security force members, have been killed in four decades of fighting between the Turkish state and the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the EU.