Turkish air strikes kill 16 PKK terrorists in southeast

Turkish air strikes have killed 16 terrorists of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the southeastern province of Hakkari near the border with Iraq over the past two days, security sources said on Wednesday.

The air strikes came after the PKK terrorists detonated a car bomb on Monday near local government offices in the city of Van further north, wounding 50 people including four police officers and four Iranian citizens.

The military said in a statement that nine terrorists had been killed in air strikes on Tuesday, in which a shelter, a cave and an ammunition depot were also destroyed. Security sources said a further seven were killed on Wednesday.

Turkey's military has intensified its operation against the PKK terrorists sin the group, which has waged a three-decade-long armed conflict in the region, abandoned a ceasefire in 2015.

Since then, PKK terrorist attacks martyred more than 600 security personnel and also claimed the lives of many civilians, including women and children, while more than 7,000 PKK terrorists were killed in army operations.

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