Turkey says its security forces have killed 54 Turkish-Kurd militants in three days of fighting around the towns of Silopi and Cizre in southeast Turkey.
The state-run Anadolu Agency said December 18 that security forces were in "hot pursuit" of militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the towns, which are near the Syrian and Iraqi borders.
The towns were placed under curfew on December 14 before an operation which media has said involves 10,000 police and troops backed by tanks.
A two-year cease-fire between the PKK and Ankara fell apart in July, reviving a conflict in the mainly Kurdish southeast that has lasted three decades, killing more than 40,000 people.