42 PKK terrorists killed in counterterrorism operations last week

Forty-two PKK terrorists were killed in counterterrorism operations last week, the Turkish Armed Forces said in a statement on Friday.

The operations, which are to clean critical regions that the terrorist organization uses both for shelter and as a transport route, specifically Hakkari, Şırnak, Mardin, Diyarbakır and Hatay provinces in the east and southeast, are continuing nonstop, with 3,837 terrorists caught in one week.

According to the statement, during the operations, one of the PKK's main sources of income, smuggling, was also prevented with effective measures that were taken at the border line. Drugs, fuel oil and cigarettes were confiscated in the operations.

Three soldiers were also killed during the operations while 18 were wounded.

Forces also killed 23 PKK terrorists on Friday in airstrikes in Turkey and abroad, the General Staff and local authorities said.

The statement said the Air Force launched airstrikes on PKK camps in northern Iraq Friday morning.

The strikes killed nine terrorists in the Zap area and five in the Avaşin-Basyan area, it added.

Security forces also killed nine PKK terrorists in southeastern Turkey on the same day.

Airstrikes in the Mt. Güven area of Çukurca killed five terrorists, the Hakkari Governor's Office said in a statement.

The army killed four terrorists in the Incebel-Kato area of the Beytüşşebap district, the Şırnak Governor's office said in a statement.