Military Branch of PKK Claims Responsibility for Killing Twelve Turkish Troops

People’s Defense Forces (HPG), the military branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has claimed responsibility for the two recent attacks on Turkish armed forces in the country's eastern Bitlis Province which killed 12 soldiers, HPG said in a statement.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to the document, members of YJA STAR, the women's military branch of PKK, shelled the Turkish camp in the Sex Cuma region with rocket-propelled grenades, killing 10 soldiers on April 25.

On April 26, HPG militants shelled the Turkish troops in Hizan district leaving 2 people dead.

The PKK, outlawed as a terrorist organization in Turkey, declared a ceasefire in 2013. It was halted two years later after the peace process between militants and the Turkish government collapsed. As a result of Ankara's military operation in the Kurdish-dominated southeastern Turkish regions started in 2015, government forces have neutralized 10,091 Kurdish militants since July 2016, according to the country's Defense Minister Fikri Isik. From Ankara's side, media reports have said that more than 1,200 people, including security personnel and civilians, have died since the beginning of the campaign.