At least three Turkish soldiers and 13 Kurdish rebels were killed on Monday, the Turkish military said, as the war with the Kurdish rebel group continues unabated in the southeastern Turkey.
The latest news of casualty came from Daglica district of Hakkari on the Iraqi border, where Turkish army said it was conducting a military operation. At least three Turkish troops and four militants were killed, while one soldier was injured.
In the Hisar district of Hakkari, state-run Anadolu news agency reported that the army killed nine more PKK militants and severely injured four more.
The latest bout of fighting resumed last summer following 2.5 years of fragile truce, which, according to the Turkish government, helped the PKK stock weapons and replenish its resources.
The Turkish army said it killed a total of 463 PKK militants in operations in the Hakkari province since the war resumed last summer.
Rights group claim that several hundred civilians were caught in the crossfire and tens of thousands of civilians were forced to flee the war-torn districts.
At least 40,000 have died since the late 1980s in clashes between Turkish forces and the PKK. The militants demand Kurdish autonomy in Turkey’s southeast. The PKK is designated as a terrorist group by Ankara, Washington and Brussels.