Militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) killed five Turkish soldiers in an ambush in the troubled southeast of the country, local media reported on Friday.
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The remaining eight were killed in clashes in Hakkari’s Cukurca district.
In the first incident, the militants opened fire on soldiers in a forested area of Ordu province in northeast Turkey, killing three and injuring two others, the provincial governor, Irfan Balkanlioglu, said in a statement.
Turkey’s military – NATO’s second-largest – is grappling with insurgency in the Kurdish southeast as its senior ranks undergo a major shake-up after the July 15-16 coup attempt.
Turkey announced reshuffling of its armed forces, where some 1,700 military personnel were given dishonourable discharges for their alleged role in the failed coup.
A ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish government collapsed in July 2015 and attacks on Turkish security forces have soared since.
The soldiers were performing a security check when they were attacked. Thousands of militants and hundreds of civilians and soldiers have been killed since then.
Nearly 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK insurgency began in 1984.
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The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, resumed its 30-year armed campaign against the Turkish government in July 2015.
