The Turkish Interior Ministry announced on Monday that a total of 40 Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists, 18 of whom were killed, have been “neutralized” across Turkey over the past week.
The ministry announced on Sept. 18 that 46 PKK militants had been neutralized the previous week.
Turkish authorities had conducted direct talks with jailed PKK chief Abdullah Öcalan for several years until a truce in effect collapsed in the summer of 2015.
Since then, there have been heavy clashes between the PKK and Turkish security forces.
More than 40,000 people, including 5,500 security force members, have been killed in four decades of fighting between the Turkish state and the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the EU.
