Three members of gendarmerie forces were killed and a village guard was heavily injured during a counterterrorism operation in southeastern Türkiye, the Interior Ministry reported on Tuesday.

Two terrorists were also killed in the same operation in a rural area of the Şırnak province known as Bestler Dereler. Turkish security forces often conduct operations in the same area against the PKK terrorist group.

The ministry said in the statement that the operation was launched on Monday and was led by the gendarmerie’s local branch in Şırnak, with support from the air force, commandos and soldiers from Special Operations units of the army. Armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and assault helicopters flanked the troops on the ground in the operation initiated after earlier surveillance work on the presence of the terrorists in the area. On Monday, one terrorist was "neutralized," the ministry said in the statement, a term used to describe terrorists killed or captured in operations.

The statement said that soldiers came across terrorists hiding in a cave while sweeping the area, and a clash broke out where two terrorists were killed.

It is the highest number of casualties in recent months in operations against the terrorist group, which severely lost its support in Türkiye in the past two decades thanks to intense counterterrorism operations. The deaths came one day after Türkiye’s presidential and parliamentary elections. The months leading to the polls were largely uneventful regarding attacks by the PKK or other terrorist groups, but the terrorist group and its activities were the main themes of the election campaigns. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan often criticizes his main rival, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), for having the support of PKK and, specifically, a political party known for its affiliation with the terrorist group.

The PKK is responsible for over 40,000 civilian and security personnel deaths in Türkiye over an almost four-decade campaign of terror. Türkiye has been conducting military operations in northern Iraq since 2019, with ground and air forces to battle the organization.

In the last few years, the operations intensifying in northern Iraq have demolished terrorist lairs in Metina, Avashin-Basyan, Zap and Gara. After eradicating the group's influence in these regions, Türkiye also aims to clear Qandil, Sinjar and Makhmour. Its military involvement in northern Iraq dates back over two decades, separately from its operations against the PKK, and also included the war against the Daesh terrorist group, which controlled much of the area, in 2014 and 2015, when Ankara was an ally in the U.S.-led anti-Daesh campaign.

Also on Tuesday, a local official in Syria’s Raqqa said YPG, the PKK's Syria wing, kidnapped a teenager and added him to its ranks.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), Redor al-Ahmed, a spokesperson for the Kurdish Independent Association, said a 16-year-old boy was abducted in Raqqa, occupied by the terrorist group. Ahmed added that the terrorist organization does not allow the abducted children to communicate with their families. YPG/PKK terrorists usually take the children they kidnap or detain to their camps for armed training. Last month, a 13-year-old boy was abducted by YPG/PKK terrorists from the Manbij district in Aleppo province.

According to U.N. figures, the terrorist group kidnapped 221 children in 2021 and added them to its ranks.