At least seven YPG/PKK terrorists were killed in a Turkish military operation in southeastern Turkey, four of whom were high-ranking terrorists, the Interior Ministry announced on Tuesday.
In a statement, the ministry said two of the terrorists were listed in the orange category, while two others were listed in the gray category of the country's most-wanted list.
The wanted list is divided into five color-coded categories, with red as the most wanted, followed by blue, green, orange and gray.
The terrorists were killed in the southeastern Siirt and Farasin regions.
Turkish security forces regularly conduct counterterrorism operations in the eastern and southeastern provinces of Turkey where the PKK has attempted to establish a strong presence.
Turkish security forces have adopted “ending terrorism at its root” and “attack rather than defense” strategies through its operations across the country.
Some 122,054 operations, including 116,650 in rural areas, targeted PKK terrorists in 2019 alone and have successfully detained and killed top PKK figures.
There were around 2,780 PKK terrorists in Turkey in 2016, according to the report, and this number has dropped to below 500 for the first time this year.
According to Interior Ministry data, there were 835 to 1,995 PKK terrorists in January 2017, while the number dropped to between 1,100 and 1,200 by January 2018, 755 to 876 in January 2019 and under 500 in January this year, equating to an 83% drop over four years and the lowest figures in three decades.
More importantly, while around 5,558 terrorists joined the PKK in 2014, this number fell to 130 in 2019 and to 13 in the first five months of 2020, a whopping 70% drop year-on-year.
In its more than 40-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and European Union, has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
