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Turkish army says killed two PKK guerrillas | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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ANKARA, (Reuters) – Turkey’s military said on Saturday it killed two Kurdish guerrillas in operations carried out in a southeastern region of the country the previous day.

The army said in a statement posted on its website that the troops seized 46 guns and various equipment and documents belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in an operation in Hakkari province on the Iraq-Turkey border.

Turkey has stepped up operations against the PKK inside Turkey. Since the end of a February land offensive against guerrillas based in northern Iraq, it has launched a series of air strikes against PKK targets in the neighbouring country. However, army sources said that fighting with the PKK has subsided in recent weeks.

Some 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict since the PKK launched its armed insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984 with the aim of establishing a Kurdish homeland in the southeast of the country.

The PKK is considered a terrorist organisation by the United States, Turkey and the European Union.