ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkey on Thursday said it launched an operation targeting members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the country's eastern Kurdish province of Dersim (Tunceli) involving hundreds of security personnel, state media reported.
The operation seeks to remove PKK members from the Mercan Mountains in the countryside of Dersim province and involves ground forces of 548 members of both the Turkish army and the police, Turkey's state-owned Anadolu Agency cited the interior ministry as saying.
The PKK is a Kurdish armed group fighting for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey and designated a terrorist organization by Ankara, which has launched successive operations southward across the border with Iraq and the Kurdistan Region to target the group's positions.
The operation is an extension of the "Eren Blockade" autumn winter operation, which was launched by Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu in early October with the goal of eliminating the PKK from the countryside.
Ankara's cross-border offensives against the PKK have been repeatedly condemned by Iraqi officials, who label them as a "hostile" and "provocative" violation of the country's sovereignty. The assaults have also led to civilian casualties who are often caught in the crossfire, despite Ankara's denial.
On Thursday, Turkey's defense ministry said that a soldier was killed by the PKK in the Kurdistan Region's Duhok province where an ongoing anti-PKK operation by Ankara is taking place.
