Turkish Armed Forces Kill Some 2,000 Kurdish Militants - Erdogan

In July, after a two-year ceasefire, Turkey launched a military campaign against the PKK in northern Iraq and in southern Turkey, following the murders of two police officers in the southern Turkish city of Ceylanpinar, carried out by the Kurdish militants.

ANKARA (Sputnik) — The Turkish Armed Forces have destroyed about 2,000 militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in recent weeks, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday.

“About 2,000 terrorists were killed both in Qandil [region in the northern Iraq] and in Turkey,” Erdogan said in an interview with the Turkish ATV television channel.

He added that the military operations against the PKK militants would be intensified, because of Sunday's deadly attack on two military vehicles in Turkey's southeastern Hakkari Province that left at least 16 people dead.

The PKK, based in Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan, was founded in the late 1970s with the aim of obtaining self-determination for the Kurdish community. The group is considered to be a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and NATO.