MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Almost 300 militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were killed in Turkey during a series of military raids, the Turkish General Staff said Saturday.
The military operation spanned three districts across the Sirnak and Diyarbakir provinces in southeastern Turkey. The majority of the provinces’ population is Kurdish.
The Turkish military said they had defused dozens of improvised explosive devices, removed roadblocks erected by PKK fighters in the Cizre and Silope districts, and destroyed a school that was allegedly used by militants for training.
The PKK group, outlawed in Turkey, has been struggling for independence of Kurdish-dominated regions in the southeast. Kurdish rebels seek to create a sovereign state in territories belonging to Turkey, Iraq and Syria.