Kurdish rebels have killed 22 Turkish soldiers in clashes in northern Iraq, a spokesman for the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) claimed today.
"After clashes yesterday between the PKK and the Turkish forces, 22 Turkish soldiers were killed. Not more than five PKK soldiers were wounded," Ahmed Danees, head of foreign relations for the PKK, told Reuters by satellite phone. The Turkish military said yesterday that 24 PKK rebels and five soldiers had been killed in clashes.
Verifying the information is difficult as the fighting is taking place in an inaccessible mountainous region.
Meanwhile, Turkish forces pressed ahead with ground operations against Kurdish rebels after the military reported that five troops and several dozen rebels had been killed in the cross-border fighting.
The US-backed Iraqi government said Turkey had assured it that the operation, Ankara's first major ground incursion against Kurdish rebel bases in nearly a decade, would target only rebels who have staged hit-and-run attacks on Turkish targets from hideouts in northern Iraq.