Turkish warplanes pound 10 PKK targets overnight

Turkish warplanes hit 10 Kurdish militant targets in Turkey’s southeast and east overnight, the state-run Anadolu Agency said on Sunday, citing security sources.

The air strikes capped one of the most violent single days of fighting in the largely Kurdish southeast in recent years. The military has said that more than 100 militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were either killed or injured in clashes on Saturday.

Turkey’s southeast has been rocked by waves of violence following the collapse last year of a 2-1/2-year ceasefire between the state and the autonomy-seeking PKK.

Fighter jets pounded four PKK targets in the Cukurca district of the southeastern Hakkari province on Saturday evening, Anadolu said, citing the security sources.

Six more positions were bombed in the region between the eastern Agri and Van provinces shortly after midnight, it said.

The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. More than 40,000 people, most of them Kurds, have died since it started its insurgency more than three decades ago.