HAKKARI, Turkey, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Turkish armed forces
have ended an almost three-week operation against Kurdish
militants in the southeast region of Semdinli, bordering Iran
and Iraq, and have killed "a large number" of fighters, the
local governor said in a statement on Saturday.
Turkish jets have bombarded Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
positions around the mountainous region in one of most intense
bouts of fighting in recent years in a decades-long conflict
which has killed 40,000 people.
"The aerial-supported operations launched by our security
forces on July 23, 2012 ... were completed on Aug. 11, 2012
morning," said the governor's office of Hakkari, the province
where Semdinli is located.
"As a result of the operations, conducted with determination
and rigour, the terrorist organisation PKK was unable to reach
its cruel goals and a large number of its members have been
rendered ineffective," it said in a statement, employing a
euphemism commonly used by officials to mean killed.
Erdogan said on Aug. 7 that 115 PKK militants had been
killed in Semdinli. The fighting began after the PKK set up
checkpoints and tried to establish a stronghold there.
The militants have fought for autonomy for Turkey's mainly
Kurdish southeast since 1984. Turkey, the United States and the
European Union list the PKK as a terrorist organisation.
Murat Karayilan, the acting PKK leader, said last week the
group was changing tactics with its battle in Semdinli,
according to Firat News, a website close to the militants.
Instead of their traditional hit-and-run ambushes on Turkish
security forces, PKK fighters would remain positioned in
Semdinli in an attempt to form a stronghold there, he said.
Suspected Kurdish militants ambushed a Turkish military bus
in western Turkey on Thursday in an attack that killed one
soldier and wounded at least 11 people. Turkish media reported a
man was arrested on Saturday in connection with the attack.
Increased PKK violence is a headache for Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan as he seeks to limit the impact at home of the
conflict in Syria, where the PKK exerts growing authority in
Kurdish areas and is receiving arms from Syrian forces, Ankara
has said.
(Reporting by Seymus Cakan; Writing by Seltem Iyigun and
Alexandra Husdon; Editing by Jon Hemming)