“Searches conducted in a cave that was taken under control following intense clashes revealed the bodies of 13 citizens who had been abducted,” BBC Turkish cited Akar as saying, while noting that over “50 targets were destroyed in an aerial operation.”

“First inspections revealed that one of our innocent and unarmed citizens had been shot in his shoulder, while the other 12 were martyred with shots to their heads,” the minister said.

According to Akar, the operation saw Turkish forces kill 48 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed group that has been at war in Turkey for Kurdish self-rule for almost 40 years.

In the same press event, Chief of Staff Yasar Guler said the latest operation in the Claw Tiger and Claw Eagle campaigns that Turkey launched last summer started on February 10 with 41 aircraft, upon “very good evidence” on where the PKK had been keeping captured Turkish personnel.

“There were our personnel who had been abducted before 2015,” Guler said, referring to the 2.5-year-long peace process with the PKK that started in 2013 to resolve the decades-long fighting in Turkey and the Kurdish issue in general, but failed in 2015, leading to renewed crackdown on armed groups and civilian Kurdish politicians alike.

According to Guler, Turkish forces reached the cave in question on the third day of the operation.

Later on Sunday, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu vowed revenge against the PKK by capturing and “tearing up into a thousand pieces” the group’s number two leader, Murat Karayilan.

Turkey will hold to account those who have caused suffering to the young men and their families, Soylu said in a statement he released.

The Turkish minister also blasted those exonerating the PKK over the attack, calling them “dishonorable filth”, in an apparent reference to the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

The Governor of Malatya announced that 10 of the 13 people had been identified, while authorities were working to identify the remaining three, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

Those identified included police and gendarmerie officers, as well as individuals without a disclosed military ranking.

On Friday, Mezopotamya Agency cited a statement by the People’s Defense Forces (HPG), the armed wing within the PKK, that said “A camp where prisoners of war were kept was hit in an aerial bombing.”

There were two directors from Turkey’s national intelligence agency MIT, and nine police officers and soldiers among the captured Turkish citizens, Mezopotamya said.

Mezopotamya also cited a 2019 statement by an HPG commander, where he said Turkey had “not made any moves to take back the captive policemen, soldiers and MIT officials from the HPG,” and instead attempted to kill them in aerial attacks.

"Won't anybody ask why PKK didn't kill the soldiers until now, when the captives were in their hands for years?" wrote journalist Fehim Isik in a tweet. "And, didn't Turkey get back its prisoners from the PKK every time it based efforts on communication? Why did it prefer these people die this time around? Who will benefit from these deaths?"

Meanwhile, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has announced that investigations have been launched against “provocative social media posts”, pertaining to the death of the security personnel, Anadolu reported.

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