(VOVworld) – At least 42 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants were killed in air strikes and clashes on Monday and Tuesday.

PKK gunmen in a conflict with Turkish troops in Bismil, Diyarbakir on September 28, 2015 (Photo: AFP/ VNA)

Turkish warplanes hit caves and gun positions of the PKK in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq, where its leadership is based, late on Monday, killing 18 fighters.

Thousands of militants and hundreds of security force members and civilians have been killed since the conflict between the PKK and the Turkish state resumed last July after 2 and a half years of ceasefire.

The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies, began a separatist insurgency in 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.