Fifteen Turkish soldiers and 23 Kurdish rebels were killed after an audacious rebel attack near the Iraqi border, the army said Saturday, in the bloodiest skirmish in a year. The attack by Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels on a military post is likely to ratchet pressure on Ankara to hit back at the militants who use rear bases in neighbouring northern Iraq to strike.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he had cancelled a two-day visit to Mongolia and would immediately return home from Turkmenistan to discuss Ankara's response.
An army spokesman said that fighting erupted Friday afternoon when a group of rebels attacked a border post in Semdinli town, Hakkari province, under cover of heavy weapons' fire from bases in northern Iraq. "Most of our losses were caused by heavy weapons' fire from the north of Iraq," General Metin Gurak, the head of the general staff's press department told the Anatolia news agency.
Turkish forces responded with artillery fire and attack helicopters pounded rebel positions while additional forces were dispatched to the area. Turkish fighter jets and artillery units also struck at a group of rebels in the north of Iraq, about 10 kilometers (about six miles) from the station which was attacked.
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