27 April 2017, 23:00 GMT
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Turkish security forces killed 78 militant members of organizations considered terrorists in the country within the past week, local media reported on Friday, citing a statement of the Turkish General Staff.
The operations were carried out in the provinces of Sirnak, Hakkari, Siirt, Diyarbakir and Erzurum, the Anadolu news agency said.
One of the militants that was killed was a senior figure of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the province of Kahramanmaras Firat Berkpinar, and was included on Turkey's most wanted terrorists list.
During the operations, security forces also destroyed 45 terrorist shelters, and seized 31 infantry rifles, two automatic rifles, a sniper rifle, three rocket launchers, 148 hand grenades, around 2,645 pounds of ammonium nitrate and 22 pounds of A-4/C-4 explosives.
Turkey considers the PKK a terrorist organization. After the ceasefire between the parties broke down in 2015, Ankara started a military operation against Kurdish militants. Turkey's Defense Minister Fikri Isik said in April that the government forces had killed over 10,000 Kurdish militants since July 2016.
