Security forces kill eight PKK militants in eastern Turkey

Militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) run as they attack Turkish security forces in Nusaybin, Turkey, March 1, 2016. (Photo by AP)

At least eight members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have been killed after Turkish security forces launched an operation against the militants in the country’s eastern province of Kars.

Rahmi Dogan, the governor of Kars, said on Sunday that security forces were searching for another militant who was believed to be on the run after the operation, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

"Eight terrorists were killed and the security forces are searching for another terrorist who is on the run," Anadolu quoted Dogan as saying.

Ankara has been engaged in a large-scale military campaign against the PKK in its southern border region over past months.

Police officers stand in a debris-covered street at the site of an explosion at the police headquarters in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, April 11, 2017.

A shaky ceasefire between the PKK, which has been calling for an autonomous Kurdish region since 1984, and the Turkish government collapsed in July 2015. Attacks on Turkish security forces have soared ever since.

Over the past few months, Turkish ground and air forces have been carrying out operations against the PKK positions in the country’s troubled southeastern border region as well as northern Iraq and Syria.

Turkey has declared the PKK a terrorist organization. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict over the past few decades.