A group of street artists lie
on a sign reading "To get Peace, stop the War! Make noise for Peace!"
during a demonstration on January 10, 2016 in Istanbul, after Turkish
security forces killed 18 militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK) (AFP Photo/Ozan Kose)
Diyarbakir (Turkey) (AFP) - Turkish security forces killed 32
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants over the weekend in fighting
between the authorities and rebels in the country's east and southeast
regions, the army and media reports said.
The security sources raided a home in eastern Van
province after receiving intelligence that the PKK militants were
planning a large-scale attack on government buildings, killing 12
rebels, Dogan news agency reported.
One policeman was killed and two others were injured in the ensuing clashes, Dogan added.
"The
terrorists came to Van to stage a big attack. Fortunately, we managed
to prevent it," provincial governor Ibrahim Tasyapan told reporters,
adding that dozens of hand granades and rifles had been seized in the
raid.
The army said that a further 20 militants had been killed
Saturday in southeastern towns of Cizre and Silopi in Sirnak province
near the Iraqi border as well as the Sur district of Diyarbakir -- all
subject to a blanket curfew.
A soldier and a police officer were
also shot dead in Diyarbakir -- the largest city in the
Kurdish-dominated southeast, security forces said. The army says
that that a total of 448 PKK members have been killed in the three towns
since the current campaign started in mid-December.
Turkey wages
an all-out offensive against the PKK, with military operations backed by
curfews ongoing to flush out the rebels from several southeastern urban
centres that have raised concerns of a humanitarian crisis.
The
operations mark a new escalation in five months of fighting with the
PKK, which initially fought for Kurdish independence but now presses
more for greater autonomy and rights for the country's largest ethnic
minority.
According to Haberturk daily's website, Prime Minister
Ahmet Davutoglu told a closed-door meeting of his ruling Justice and
Development Party (AKP) that the operations and curfews in the southeast
would end within a week, but "there was no deadline."
"We will
pursue our fight against terrorism with great determination until these
killers have been wiped out from our mountains, plains and towns," he
told the meeting on Sunday in televised comments. In Istanbul, a
group of street artists, actors and musicians marched on Istiklal Avenue
to call for an end to violence, carrying placards reading "Make noise
for Peace!," an AFP photographer said.
Human
Rights Foundation of Turkey said on Saturday that over 160 civilians,
including 32 civilians, had so far been killed in curfew-hit towns.
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