Security forces have been conducting intensive operations against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) since March in southeast Turkey, particularly along a stretch of the border with Iraq between Silopi and Semdinli and in the Van Lake region on the Iranian border.
The operations can be defined as "area denial-search-destroy," with the objective of neutralizing (capture, wound or kill — in this case, primarily kill) PKK militants before they can complete the tactical move between their winter and summer operational deployments. In the winter, they often seek refuge in Iraq's mountainous Qandil regions, while in summer they deploy to more easily navigated areas of Turkey's interior, where they can launch attacks and withdraw quickly.