(Xinhua) -- Turkey's General Staff said in a statement issued on Saturday that the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) had dissolved to a great extent. According to the statement, there were about 200 PKK rebels on the Mount Qandil in northern Iraq. Most of them laid down arms after the air strike of Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). "Those terrorists passed through the check points of the regional administration in north of Iraq and dispersed to settlements in the region," said the statement, adding that the TSK staged a major air strike on PKK camps in northern Iraq on May1- 2 and successfully destroyed most of them.
"All these developments indicate that the PKK is panicked and demoralized," it said, adding that "many so-called top members of the PKK had started to see a nightmare and tried to flee to other regions or neighboring countries."
At least 19 PKK rebels were killed during the clash with the security forces in the southeastern province of Hakkari earlier on Saturday, while four Turkish security officers died in the clash, said the statement, adding that two soldiers were also wounded.
"Turkish Armed Forces would continue to fight against the PKK in and out of Turkey with determination," added the statement.
The Turkish military has periodically bombed and shelled suspected PKK positions in Turkish-Iraqi border area during the past few months. In February it launched an eight-day ground incursion into Iraq.
The PKK, listed by the United States and Turkey as a terrorist group, took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the southeast. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the over-two-decade conflict.