Eight members of the Turkish security forces were killed in clashes with Kurdish militants on Thursday in Turkey’s restive southeast, the army said.
Six soldiers and two military security guards died while two soldiers were wounded — one heavily — after fighting broke out in the Semdinli district of Hakkari province that borders Iraq, the armed forces said in a statement.
The military reported it had killed five members of the “separatist terror organisation”, Turkey’s official term for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
It was not possible to independently verify the toll.
The armed forces said the militants were “trying to benefit from the heavy fog and bad weather conditions” to launch an attack.
The military operations in the region continue, the army said.
The PKK is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
Since the PKK launched its insurgency in Turkey in 1984, over 40,000 people have been killed.
Turkish military operations against the PKK intensified in the southeast after the collapse of a two-year ceasefire in 2015.
