The Turkish Interior Ministry says security forces have killed 15 Kurdish women during clashes in the southeastern province of Bitlis.
The fighting broke out in a rural area of Bitlis on Saturday.
According to local security sources, the women were members of one of the women-only units of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The Saturday clashes come a day after Turkish security forces carried out an operation against the PKK terrorists near the Iraqi border. Seven Turkish forces and six PKK members were killed during the operation.
On December 29, 35 people were killed in a Turkish air strike near a Kurdish village in the Uludere district of Sirnak Province close to the border with Iraq. The Turkish military said it had targeted suspected PKK members. 
However, Turkish officials later acknowledged that “civilians” were killed during the attack, according to AFP.
The PKK launched an armed campaign against Turkey in 1984 in a quest to gain autonomy for Kurds living in the southeast of the country.
