AP-Oct 8, 2007, Two Turkish soldiers killed by Kurdish insurgents with roadside
explosions on Monday, a day after guerrillas killed 13 troops in their most
destructive attack in months.
Troops encircled an area near Iraq (Southern Kurdistan) to try to stop
insurgents from escaping across the border. Anger is heightening in Turkey over
the ability of separatist fighters to seek asylum in Iraq.
Turkey has been pressing Iraq and the United States to hit bases of the rebel
Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq, and has considered a
military operation across the border to eradicate the rebels.
"Our government is determined to take every measure possible if it will be
useful to stamp out terrorism," State Minister Cemil Cicek, the government
spokesman, said at the end of a Cabinet meeting.
A statement released at the end of an emergency security meeting between Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President Abdullah Gul and the commander in chief
of the armed forces, and Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, expressed determination to "press
ahead with (the) rightful struggle against terrorism and to implement strong
measures." It did not elaborate.
Earlier this year, the military opposed Gul's efforts to win the presidency
because it feared he would impose Islamic values at the expense of Turkey's
secular traditions; Gul, a pious Muslim, has vowed to safeguard secularism.
Erdogan said late Sunday he would discuss the PKK threat with U.S. President
George W. Bush during a visit to Washington next month.
On Monday, a soldier was killed and three were injured when their vehicle hit a
land mine believed to have been planted by rebels near Lice, southeast Turkey,
the Anatolia news agency reported.
One soldier was killed in a separate explosion on a road in the southeastern
province (Northern Kurdistan) of Shirnakh, the private Dogan news agency
reported.
Sunday's casualties also occurred in Shirnakh, where the 18-member commando unit
was ambushed on the way to an operation on Mt. Gabar, some 25 kilometers (16
miles) northwest of the Iraqi border, Gov. Selahattin Apari said in an
interview.
An operation to track down the rebels was under way, and troops shelled areas to
try to prevent rebels from reaching bases in Iraqi Kurdistan, the military said.
The state-run Anatolia agency said the military was conducting anti-rebel
offensives, backed by air power, in four regions inside Shirnakh province.
"The operations are continuing nonstop, we are suffering (losses) because of the
intensity of the anti-rebel operations," Apari said.
Apari said Sunday's attack was in retaliation to serious losses the rebels
suffered at the hands of Turkish troops in recent months.
The rebels were mostly infiltrating into Turkey from the Beytussebap area, some
120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Shirnakh, the governor said.
The ambushed commandos were transferred from a commando regiment in the western
city of Bolu to help fight the rebels.
On the way to Shirnakh the biggest city in the province of the same name Turkish
commandos were manning a checkpoint as two armored personnel carriers stood by
at the Kasrik crossing, one of the most mountainous areas in the rugged region.
As some soldiers checked IDs of passengers, a Turkish soldier was seen with a
heavy machine gun, placed on sandbags, directed at the mountains.
On Monday, at least two F-16 war planes could be seen taking off from Diyarbakir
air base. Other war planes could be seen outside of hangars with their canopies
open, ready to take off.
Abdul-Rahman al-Chadarchi, a spokesman for the Kurdish rebel group, confirmed
the attack on Sunday and said the rebel fighters sustained no casualties.
"We are not concerned with this issue because these clashes and shelling
happened inside Turkish territories. This is a Turkish internal problem," Jamal
Abdullah, a spokesman for the government of Iraq's Kurdish region, said after
Sunday's attack.
