DIYARBAKIR: A Turkish soldier and three members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have been killed in a clash in southeastern Turkey, the provincial governor’s office said on Monday. The clash occurred in the remote province of Sirnak on Sunday during the Turkish army’s annual “spring offensive” against PKK rebels, who cross into Turkey from their mountain strongholds in northern Iraq. Army operations were continuing on Monday, the governor’s office said.Dozens of guerrillas and members of the security forces have been killed in recent clashes and mine attacks, as well as a string of bombings in Turkey’s largest city Istanbul, some of them claimed by a group linked to the PKK. The Sirnak clash coincides with the dispatch of Turkish troop reinforcements totalling 40,000 to the southeast to help deal with expected PKK incursions. Ankara has repeatedly asked the United States to crack down on Kurdish militants.
| Go to it, guys. I never have been partial to the adherents of Armed Struggle™. |