Alwaght- Turkish military has killed more than 800 members of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the country's southeastern towns of Cizre in Sirnak Province and Sur in Diyarbakır province.
In a statement posted on its website, the Turkish General Staff said 16 members of the separatist organization, a reference to the PKK, were killed in Cizre on Thursday, bringing the total number of militants killed in the district to 619, Turkey-based Tody's Zaman website reported.
Mainly Kurdish-populated city of Cizre, which has been under a punishing curfew since Dec. 14, 2015, has been a focal point of clashes between Turkish military and members of the PKK's youth wing. Interior Minister Efkan Ala said on Thursday that security forces had completed their operations against militants in Cizre, but that the curfew will remain in place for now.
Authorities imposed curfews in Cizre and other southeastern districts a bid to root out PKK members.
However, Co-leader of the left-wing pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, Selahattin Demirtas, said last week Turkish government troops have massacred civilians in Cizre during war on PKK members.
"They (Turkish forces) committed a massacre in Cizre, and they don't want to announce it," Selahattin Demirtas told lawmakers from his party on 9 February.
During Turkey's brutal crackdown on PKK members in another southeastern town under curfew, Sur in Diyarbakır province, 189 have been killed, the military said. Five PKK members were killed on Thursday.
In Çukurca, a district on the border with Iraq, six members of the separatist terrorist organization were killed in an air campaign, the military also said.
Since the break of the peace process between Turkey Government and PKK -that was launched in 2012 as an effort to end a bloody conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people in 30 years- hundreds of PKK members and over 200 Turkish security forces have been killed.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) says at least 128 civilians have been killed during the curfews.
