ISTANBUL — Kurdish rebels killed six Turkish soldiers and wounded nine in a raid yesterday on a military outpost along the border with Iraq, an attack that displays the resiliency of the low-level insurgency. Another soldier died in a separate attack.
Troops backed by helicopter gunships surged into the mountainous area after the attack, even as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged that military action alone would not end a 26-year conflict rooted in the grievances of Turkey’s Kurdish minority....
According to the prime minister and Anatolia news agency, rebels from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party fired rockets and other weapons at the unit at around 2 a.m. At least one rebel was killed.
The fighting happened near the town of Cukurca in Hakkari province in southeast Turkey, a frequent site of attacks by militants who slip across an Iraqi border that is difficult to police because of its remote and rugged landscape.
In Iraq, Roz Wellat, a rebel spokesman, said Turkish jets overnight bombed some areas in Mount Qandil, site of a main guerrilla base along Iraq’s border with Iran. He said there were no rebel casualties.--more--"
Related: Israel unleashes proxy war against Turkey
Suspicion growing about possible link between PKK and Israel
Also see: Plan B