A total of 124 terrorists, including two on Turkey's most wanted list, were killed in November by Turkish security forces, the Interior Ministry said in a statement Wednesday.
Speaking in the capital Ankara, Interior Ministry spokesman İsmail Çataklı said Turkey conducted 8,408 internal security operations in rural areas within the last month, while 1,480 operations were carried out in urban areas.
As a result of Turkey’s Operation Kıran against terrorist elements in the country’s southeast, 19 terror collaborators were captured and 281 caves and shelters used by terrorists were destroyed.
Meanwhile, Turkey has deported some 59 foreign terrorists since Nov. 11. Five of them were repatriated to Germany on Tuesday, the ministry announced.
Çataklı added that some 369,690 Syrians living in Turkey have returned to their country so far, to the areas liberated by Turkey’s anti-terror operations.
Operation Euphrates Shield and its successors – Operation Olive Branch in 2018 and Operation Peace Spring which was launched on Oct. 9 – all aim to eliminate terrorist elements, including Daesh and the PKK-affiliated People's Protection Units (YPG) near Turkey’s borders.
Ankara wants to clear the YPG/PKK from northern Syria and the area east of the Euphrates.
In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women and children.
