Key Highlights
- At least six members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have been killed when they clashed with Turkish security forces in eastern province of Mus in Turkey.
- Monday 17th August 2015, Turkish forces launched an operation in Varto district of the province which is located about 959 kilometers east of the capital, Ankara.
- Turkish soldiers engaged in a firefight with the Kurdish PKK fighters, and killed six of them.
- On Sunday 16th August 2015, one Turkish soldier and three PKK militants were killed near the town of Kagizman in eastern province of Kars. Fatalities were caused as Turkish army forces mounted an operation to capture the Kurdish militants.
- On Saturday 15th August 2015, three army soldiers were killed by a roadside bombing in Karliova district of Turkey’s eastern province of Bingol.
- August 14, 2015, PKK militants engage in a fierce exchange of fire in southeastern province of Hakkari.
Summary
Turkey forces have been launching aerial strikes against purported Daesh targets in Syria as well as PKK positions in Iraq.
Intensified military campaigns prompted when Daesh militants on July 20 committed an attack leaving at least 32 dead in southeastern Turkish town of Suruc across the border from northern Syrian town of Kobani.
Some observers have expressed doubt about the Turkey intentions in the airstrikes. Turkey has been accused of supporting Daesh terrorist group and their strikes are only inclined to target PKK which they consider as enemy number one.
PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s. The conflict has left tens of thousands of people dead.
