On Sunday, Turkey’s Interior Ministry announced it had fired 28 provincial administrators and district governors for having links to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen The move was followed by clashes in the region.
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Turkish military and security sources said the air raids were carried out in the province of Hakkari over the past two days.
Prime Minister Yildirim said operations against the PKK terrorist group will continue “until our citizens’ security is ensured 100 percent”.
Late on Thursday, seven paramilitary policemen, a soldier and a sergeant lost their lives when PKK militants launched an assault in the eastern province of Agri.
Last week, Ankara appointed new administrators in 24 Kurdish-run municipalities, a lot of them in the largely-Kurdish southeast, after removing their mayors over alleged militant links.
The PKK claimed responsibility for the blast, saying it was in retaliation for the killing by security forces of Kurdish youths and the sacking of two dozen mayors from Kurdish-run municipalities.
The PKK, listed as a terror group by Turkey and its Western allies, has resumed attacks in Turkey after the rupture previous year of a fragile ceasefire.
In Sirnak, on the border with Iraq, several Turkish attack helicopters bombed PKK targets near the Cudi and Gabar mountains in support of land forces carrying out operations in the area.
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Southeastern Turkey has seen a surge in violence since the PKK, which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in the region, abandoned a ceasefire in 2015.
