461 killed in clashes with Kurd rebels this year

Clashes between Turkish soldiers and Kurdish rebels have killed 461 people this year in almost 1,000 operations in the country's southeast, the military was quoted as saying by local media Monday. Some 373 Kurdish rebels were killed in operations carried out over five months, and 88 Turkish soldiers in the last nine months, the army was quoted as saying by the private NTV television network. The army has staged 974 operations over the last six months to drive out the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which often stages ambushes against Turkish forces in the Kurdish-majority southeast, according to NTV. In recent months Ankara has staged several offensives involving thousands of ground troops backed by helicopter gunships and F-16 fighters jets to crush a spike in rebel assaults. Turkish army operations target rebel hideouts inside the country as well as across the border with Iraq, where authorities claim rebels are holed up to launch strikes inside Turkey. Some government officials believe Syria's embattled regime is helping the PKK in retaliation for Turkey's support for rebels fighting President Bashar Assad's forces. The PKK, considered a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms in the southeast in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.