Turkey Kills at Least 110 Kurdish PKK Fighters in Six Days

“Kurdish civilians, including women, children and elderly residents, have been killed during security operations and armed clashes since July 2015”, the group said in a report released on Tuesday, titled “Turkey: Mounting Security Operation Deaths”.

Turkish police on Tuesday fired tear gas cannisters and used water cannon to disperse thousands of people protesting in the southeast against the military crackdown on Kurdish rebels, an AFP photographer said.

Turkish security forces have been carrying out operations in urban areas of the southeast for the past week, killing at least 110 militants, according to security sources.

The operation, which has targeted the towns of Cizre and Silopi in the province of Sirnak as well as a neighbourhood in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the region, began on Wednesday, according to the army.

Most of the fighting took place in Cizre and Silopi, towns near the Iraqi and Syrian borders that have been under curfew for nearly a week.

“The Turkish government should rein in its security forces, immediately stop the abusive and disproportionate use of force, and investigate the deaths and injuries caused by its operations”, said Emma Sinclair-Webb, senior Turkey researcher at HRW.

Turkey is on alert after 103 people were killed on October 10 when two suicide bombers ripped through a crowd of peace activists in the capital Ankara, the worst attack in modern Turkey’s history.

“Should people act like lambs to the slaughter in the face of all pressures?” asked Selahattin Demirtas, who leads the Peoples Democratic Party, or HDP. Food and drinking water were running scarce, residents told Reuters news agency.

Meanwhile, Turkish Armed Forces said in its statement that 18 militants were killed on December 19 during operations in Cizre, Silopi and Sur.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu condemned the HDP’s leadership as “divisive”, also slamming one of their leaders for a planned visit to Moscow.

Members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the USA and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, have been fighting the Turkish state for decades, calling for Kurdish self-determination. Provincial authorities have slapped extended curfews on flashpoint neighborhoods and towns of the south, a measure they see as necessary to facilitate security operations.