A senior PKK terrorist surrendered to security forces in Turkey's southeastern Şanlıurfa province, reports said Monday.

According to security sources, the 23-year-old terrorist surrendered, along with his weapons and transmitter.

Identified by the initials K.B., the terrorist was forced to join the PKK six years ago after being kidnaped in Batman province.

He was taken to Syria to receive ideological training and was then sent to the camps in northern Iraq to receive arms training, sources told Anadolu Agency (AA).

K.B. decided to lay down his arms and surrender to gendarmerie forces after realizing the "true face" of the PKK, he told security forces, adding that he regretted joining the terrorist group.

Turkish counterterrorism operations intensified after July 2018 and have become routine since the beginning of another extensive campaign, Operation Claw, which was launched on May 27 to entirely eliminate the presence of the terrorist organization in northern Iraq.

The number of terrorists in the country has declined to nearly 500 for the first time due to effective anti-terror operations and strategies, the Interior Ministry announced this month.

Underling Turkey's important gains in its war on terror over the past three years, the ministry noted that more than 1,100 terrorists had surrendered on their own volition over 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 deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. The YPG is the PKK's Syrian offshoot.