SIX TURKISH soldiers, two state militiamen and 11 Kurdish militants were killed when the rebels attacked military outposts in southeast Turkey, security sources said yesterday.
Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan accused unnamed foreign countries of backing the fighters who attacked at least three military bases.
The sources said 16 other soldiers and six civilians were wounded yesterday in the attacks on the bases near the town of Cukurca in Hakkari province, which borders Iraq.
Erdogan called the attack “dastardly”.
“Turkey has the strength to put enemy nations and circles who hold the strings of the terrorist organisation in their place,” Erdogan said in statement, without naming any countries.
Clashes between the Turkish army and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have intensified in recent weeks in a conflict that has lasted 28 years and killed 40,000 people, mainly Kurds. Millions of ethnic Kurds live in a region which includes adjacent parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. – (Reuters)