Turkish forces kill 32 Kurdish militants in southeast: sources

DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY: Turkish forces killed 32 Kurdish militants after finding them in a house in the southeastern city of Van overnight, security sources said on Sunday.

One police officer also died and two others were wounded during the operation in the city, north of the borderlands with Syria and Iraq that have seen the worst of a recent surge in fighting.

Clashes have flared across the mainly Kurdish southeast since a two-year ceasefire between the state and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants ended in July, reviving a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people over three decades.



Recent fighting has centred on the towns of Cizre and Silopi near the Syrian and Iraqi borders, along with the Sur district of Diyarbakir, the region's largest city.

Security forces killed 16 militants in Cizre and two in Sur on Friday, according to a military statement.

The PKK, which launched its insurgency in 1984 and says it is fighting for autonomy and greater rights for Kurds, is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.