1 soldier killed in action, 5 others injured in clashes with PKK terrorists in eastern Turkey


One soldier was killed in action and five others were wounded in clashes with PKK terrorists Saturday in Turkey's eastern Ağrı province.

Gendarmerie teams conducting field scans near the Mount Ararat (Ağrı) in the Doğubeyazıt district came across with a group of terrorists, security sources said.

The subsequent clashes left six soldiers wounded while a terrorist was killed and several others were injured.

The wounded soldiers were rushed to the state hospital in Doğubeyazıt town center, but one of them succumbed to his wounds.

Clashes continue in the area where reinforcements were deployed to capture the terrorist group.

Meanwhile, the Turkish General Staff said Saturday a total of 4,157 terrorists have been "neutralized" since the start of the Operation Olive Branch in Syria's Afrin region on Jan. 20 to remove PKK-linked People's Protection Units (YPG) and Daesh terrorists. On March 18, Turkish troops and Free Syrian Army liberated the Afrin district center.

The weekly statement said that 52 Turkish soldiers had also been killed while 232 others were injured during the Afrin operation.

Also, 107 mines and 781 improvised explosives were destroyed in the operation.

The Turkish army also said it had neutralized 67 terrorists during anti-terror operations in eastern Turkish provinces of Tunceli, Diyarbakır and Şırnak, and in northern Iraq between April 7 and April 13; 27 of the terrorists were neutralized inside the country while 40 others were neutralized abroad. A senior figure is among the neutralized terrorists, it added.

During the anti-terror operations, 44 arms including infantry rifles, snipers and machine guns were seized while 84 improvised explosives, 47 weapon emplacements, shelters, caves and depots were also destroyed.

The statement also said two soldiers were martyred and 10 others were injured within this period.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- has been responsible for the death of some 40,000 people.

The Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed wing YPG are Syrian branches of the terrorist PKK and the focus of Turkey's successful counter-terrorist Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, Syria, near the border with Turkey.