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Kurdish rebels kill 10 Turkish soldiers near Iraq

19 June 2010 17:17 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Kurdish rebels killed 10 Turkish soldiers in an attack on an army post and a mine explosion near the border with Iraq, prompting retaliatory air raids on rebel outposts, the army said Saturday, APA reports quoting AFP.
The rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) claimed responsibility for the attack which killed eight soldiers at a military post near the city of Semdinli close to the Iraqi border, PKK spokesman Ahmed Denis told AFP in the Iraqi Kurdistan regional capital of Arbil.
"Turkish warplanes have started to attack the Khwakorek district inside Iraqi territory," Denis said, adding that he had no information on number of casualties.
The Turkish military responded with helicopters to the army post attack and killed 12 rebels, the army said in an online statement. It also said 14 soldiers had been wounded.
Turkish fighter jets then launched a raid targeting PKK rebel positions in northern Iraq where the separatists have rear bases, the military said.
Later Saturday, two soldiers were killed by a remote-controlled mine while engaged in operations to capture Kurdish rebels infiltrating across the border.
The PKK often lays mines to attack Turkish forces and civilians suspected of working for them.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced the attack on the army post as "cowardly" and vowed that it would have no effect on his country’s determination to fight the PKK "to the end".
In a message of condolence to the head of the armed forces, Erdogan emphasised that Turkey was willing to "pay the price" to "annihilate " the PKK.
On Friday the Turkish military announced that at least 130 members of the PKK had been killed inside Turkey and in an air raid on rebel hideouts in Iraq since violence flared anew in March. The military had lost 43 personnel.
The military also said it expected the PKK to further intensify and spread its attacks.
The mounting violence in recent months has clouded the government’s bid to seek a peaceful end to the 26-year-old conflict with Kurdish rebels seeking a separate homeland in the country’s southeast.
The conflict with the PKK, considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey and much of the international community, has claimed more than 45,000 lives since it began in 1984, according to the army.