Turkish soldiers patrol in Sur district, which is partially under curfew, in the Kurdish-dominated southeastern city of Diyarbakir, Turkey February 26, 2016. REUTERS/Sertac Kayar
Seven Kurdish militants were killed in a gunfight in southeast Turkey’s largest city Diyarbakir on Thursday, security sources said.
Turkish authorities announced on Wednesday the end of military operations in the Kurdish Sur district of Diyarbakir (Amed), southeastern the country.
“The military operations in the district ended at 16:00 pm on Wednesday, while curfew is ongoing since the 2nd of December last year,” Chief of staff of the Turkish army said in a statement on Wednesday.
The clash reupted in the city’s Sur district, parts of which have been devastated in fighting between security forces and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants since a two-year-old ceasefire collapsed last July.
The sources said Special Forces police clashed with the militants after they opened fire from a basement in Sur, an area surrounded by UNESCO-listed Roman-era walls, which was placed under 24-hour curfew on Dec. 2.
The army said on Thursday 279 PKK fighters had been killed in operations in Sur since Dec. 17.
Military operations have also recently arrived to an end in other parts of the mainly Kurdish southeast, most recently in the town of Idil, near the Syrian border where 120 PKK fighters were killed in three weeks of fighting there, according to military sources.
More than 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK launched its insurgency in 1984. The group, which says it is fighting for Kurdish autonomy, is labelled as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union.
