Azernews.Az

Turkish troops have killed 21 Kurdish militants, including a regional commander, in southeastern Turkey during a large-scale operation now into its fifth day, security officials said on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

The latest offensive comes after one of the deadliest summers in years for Turkish troops following an increase in attacks on security forces by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters in the mainly Kurdish southeast of the country.

The Turkish military launched the operation, involving some 3,000 Turkish troops backed by attack helicopters and warplanes, after identifying a group of around 30 PKK fighters on Goresi Mountain on the border of Elazig and Diyarbakir provinces.

On Monday, a senior military officer said 13 militants had been killed and five more wounded during the operation. On Wednesday security officials said the total number killed had risen to 21 and that the operation was still continuing.

Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said on Monday there would be no let up in the military operations against the PKK this winter when clashes traditionally ease off as movement becomes more difficult.

An alleged regional PKK commander, Huseyin Akdogan, was among those killed and large amounts of ammunition and explosives belonging to the PKK were seized, the officials said.

The PKK is fighting for Kurdish autonomy in the southeast of Turkey. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the PKK insurgency since the group took up arms in 1984.

In one of the biggest attacks in the history of the insurgency, PKK militants killed 24 soldiers in Hakkari, bordering Iraq in October, prompting the military to mount cross-border operations. Several thousand PKK fighters are based in the mountains of northern Iraq.

The United States, the European Union, as well as Turkey, all regard the PKK as a terrorist organisation.

Turkey's ruling AK Party, which emerged from a string of banned Islamist parties, has passed laws granting greater cultural and language rights for the country's Kurds, some 20 percent of the population, and is currently negotiating with Kurdish members of parliament to gain their support for a new constitution it says will bring greater equality.

Separately, in southeastern Mardin province, Turkish soldiers shot two plumbers late on Tuesday mistaking them for PKK guerillas, Mardin governor's office said on Wednesday. One of the men died in the attack and the other was badly wounded, Turkish broadcaster CNN Turk reported.