Turkey kills 27 Kurdish militants as southeast violence escalates: military
Turkey's military killed 27 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the largely Kurdish southeast on Friday, the armed forces said in a statement, in a day of violence in which at least seven security force members were also killed.
Turkey's southeast has been scorched by waves of fighting following the collapse last year of a 2-1/2-year ceasefire between state and the outlawed PKK.
The military said it killed 27 militants and wounded 30 more in air strikes and land operations in Hakkari, a predominantly Kurdish are of the country, where the autonomy-seeking PKK has waged its three-decade insurgency.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim earlier said the group had squandered the chance for a political peace process, after it launched a series of bomb attacks following the collapse of the ceasefire in July 2015.
A total of seven security personnel were killed in clashes in the southeastern provinces of Hakkari, Van, and Mardin, security sources told Reuters.
Separately, a blast from a roadside bomb hit a passing military vehicle near the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, security sources said, blaming the PKK.
At least one soldier was wounded, Dogan news agency reported.