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| Europe |
| Turks say 35 PKK fighters may have been killed in attacks |
| 2008-10-18 |
| The Turkish military said Friday that up to 35 Kurdish rebels may have died in a military offensive near the Iraqi border earlier this week. General Metin Gurak, the head of the General Staff's press department, said that intercepted wireless communication between Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels during Tuesday's operation in Sirnak province spoke of up to 35 casualties. "As you can see the organization has suffered heavily. We are still sweeping the area. We do not have an official statement yet" on the PKK's losses, he told a news conference. The communication was intercepted after Turkish artillery and gunship fire targeted two groups of PKK militants when they were moving toward a military outpost in the mountainous region, he said. The intercepted messages also suggested the rebels might have shot dead fellow militants who were seriously wounded and could not move. The Turkish military has intensified operations against the PKK since October 3 when the militants crossing from hideouts in neighboring Iraq assaulted a border outpost, killing 17 soldiers. Beside operations inside Turkey, it has also carried out seven air raids against PKK camps in northern Iraq, including one in which senior PKK members were targeted in the mountainous region of Zap, a major rebel stronghold. Turkey's Parliament last week extended by one year the government's mandate to order cross-border military strikes against the PKK in northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, which has been in effect since October 17, 2007. |
| Posted by:Fred |