At least 208 members of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) have been killed in a vast operation against the group, Anadolu news agency reported Friday.

The Turkish army said that the operation was launched mainly in southeastern Turkey over the past ten days.

The Turkish forces arrested a Syrian national for hiding military equipment and weapons in his house.

The operations mark a new escalation in five months of fighting between the army and the PKK since a two-and-a-half year truce collapsed in July.

The PKK launched a formal insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984, initially fighting for Kurdish independence although it now presses more for greater autonomy and rights for the country's largest ethnic minority. The conflict has left tens of thousands dead.

Source: MENA