(Reuters) - Eighteen people were killed on Tuesday in fighting between
Turkish soldiers and Kurdish militants at three military outposts in
southeast Turkey, officials and security sources said, in the deadliest
clashes in recent months.
Eight Turkish soldiers were
killed and 16 others wounded in simultaneous attacks by the militants of
the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on the outposts, the sources said.
In subsequent clashes Turkish troops killed 10
PKK militants, according to the governor's office in Hakkari province
where the fighting occurred, near the mountainous border with Iraq.
 |
| Turkish soldiers patrol a road near Cukurca in the Hakkari province, southeastern Turkey, near the Turkish-Iraqi border October 22, 2011. REUTERS/Stringer |
The
attack came at a time of new efforts in
Turkey to address the
grievances of the Kurdish minority in a bid to end a conflict that has
scarred the region for three decades.
The
guerrillas began the coordinated attacks with rocket launchers and
rifles at around 5 a.m. (0200 GMT) on the military observation points,
the sources said, adding that operations were continuing against the
rebels.
The militants were believed
to have crossed the border from northern Iraq to carry out the attacks
before retreating back across the border, the sources said.
Several
thousand PKK militants are based in mountain hideouts in northern Iraq,
from where they regularly launch attacks on state targets in mainly
Kurdish southeast Turkey.
The head
of the armed forces General Necdet Ozel rushed to the region, along with
the commanders of the ground forces and paramilitary gendarmerie,
Turkish media reported.
The PKK,
designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European
Union, launched its separatist insurgency in 1984. More than 40,000
people have been killed in the conflict.
As
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan seeks an end to the conflict, the leader
of Turkey's opposition Republican People's Party said this month he was
willing to work with the ruling AK Party to resolve the Kurdish problem.
Erdogan
subsequently told parliament that Kurdish language lessons could be
offered as an optional course in schools. He also suggested he was
prepared to hold talks with prominent Kurdish politician Leyla Zana
after she said she believed Erdogan was capable of ending the Kurdish
troubles.
Amid speculation about
further moves to end the conflict, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc
raised the possibility at the weekend of jailed PKK leader Abdullah
Ocalan being put under house arrest if the militants were to lay down
their weapons.
However other
leading government figures, pointing to nationalist sensitivities over
such a radical move, dismissed the idea, and Erdogan said it was only
Arinc's personal view.
Concerns about the PKK insurgency have been exacerbated by the conflict in Syria, which also has a Kurdish minority.
PKK
rebels have launched sporadic attacks in recent months near the Syrian
border in Hatay province, where thousands of Syrians are housed in
refugee camps. One Turkish soldier was killed on Monday night in Hatay
in a clash with PKK militants, the governor's office there said in a
statement.
Monday's attack in
Hakkari drew parallels with an assault on a military outpost in the same
region of Daglica in 2007, when 12 soldiers were killed and 8 were
kidnapped by the PKK.
By Seyhmus Cakan
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey |
Tue Jun 19, 2012 11:05am BST
(Reporting by Seyhmus Cakan; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Alessandra Rizzo)
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