115 Kurdish rebels killed in Turkey raids since July 23

Turkey's interior minister said Sunday some 115 Kurdish rebels have been killed in a large-scale military offensive launched in the southeast of the country in July. "We reached the conclusion that 115 members of the separatist terrorist organization have been rendered ineffective" since an offensive launched on July 23 to 24, Idris Naim Sahin was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency, referring to members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). His remarks came after Kurdish rebels stormed a Turkish army post on the Iraq border Sunday, triggering fighting that killed 22 people. A series of similar assaults against troops in the Kurdish-dominated southeast prompted the army to launch an all-out offensive against PKK bases in the area last month. The Turkish ground and air operation, one of the biggest in years, is focused on the town of Semdinli, in Hakkari province, and NTV television said about 2,000 troops are involved. Sahin said the operation was still continuing, adding that security forces were taking measures to prevent Kurdish rebels from fleeing to northern Iraq where the organization is based. The PKK, considered a terrorist organization by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms in the southeast in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives.