The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants, armed with rockets and assault rifles, launched the attack overnight, near the border town of Cukurca, targeting a military unit stationed there as reinforcement after a significant escalation of rebel violence since June, military sources said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that six soldiers were killed and 15 wounded in the ensuing clashes, adding that a PKK rebel was shot dead by security forces.

“We will pursue our struggle against terrorism with determination. We will continue fearlessly and tirelessly. We will not take even one small step back,” he said.
An operation was underway Tuesday to catch the assailants after the army deployed reinforcements, backed by air cover, the military source said.

It was not immediately clear whether the militants had sneaked in from northern Iraq, where the PKK has long taken refuge at remote mountainous bases.

The PKK dramatically stepped up its 26-year separatist campaign after its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan said through his lawyers in late May he was abandoning efforts to seek dialogue with Ankara.

The flaring unrest dealt a severe blow on an already fragile government initiative, announced last year, to expand Kurdish freedoms and boost investment in the Kurdish-majority southeast in a bid to erode separatist sentiment in the region and cajole the rebels into laying down arms.

The government rejects dialogue with the PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, dismissing criticism by Kurdish activists that any peace effort is doomed to fail unless the PKK is included.

A declaration signed by 649 non-governmental organizations from 20 provinces across the country called for end to violence by both sides and the launch of a dialogue with the rebels for peace.

“The Turkish Armed Forces should cease their operations and the PKK must end their attacks. An end to the fighting must be secured at once and an atmosphere of peace that will open the way for a political solution to be installed,” read the declaration issued Tuesday.

“A process of dialogue must be launched to enable a lasting solution and no party to this conflict should be excluded from this process,” it added.

Ankara has in recent years granted Kurds a series of cultural freedoms, but has failed to draw up a clear strategy on how rebels could be persuaded to abandon violence and reintegrated into society.

The PKK has threatened to spread violence to urban centres in western Turkey.

Last month, radical Kurdish militants claimed responsibility for a remote-control roadside bomb that hit a bus carrying army personel in Istanbul, killing five soldiers and the teenage daughter of an officer.

Under pressure for tougher measures against the rebels, Erdogan said last week Ankara was planning to deploy specially-trained professional soldiers along the Iraqi border to fight the rebels and stop them infiltrating Turkish soil.

Since 2007, the Turkish army has often bombed PKK hideouts in northern Iraq and carried out a number of cross-border ground operations to pursue the rebels.

The PKK took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in the southeast in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives.

Source: Cumhuriyet
URL: en.cumhuriyet.com/?hn=159294

Mine, earlier planted on the rural area in Van’s Gurpinar town by the terrorist organization PKK, went off when security forces were tracking down terrorists.

One soldier died, another was wounded in the blast. The injured soldier was taken under treatment in a military hospital in Van.

Source: Cumhuriyet
URL: en.cumhuriyet.com/?hn=158034

The number of terrorists killed in operations in last six months reached 187, military sources said. The terrorist organization has suffered heavy losses in recent months as Turkish military started using Cobra helicopters and Heron unmanned aerial vehicles after rising casual terrorist attacks followed by a recent order –from Mounth Qandil in the north of Iraq where terrorist heads are located– to escalate attacks.

Turkey has been fighting terrorist PKK over the past 26 years. Turkey has launched several cross border operations into the north of Iraq in the past to track down PKK terrorists, who took refuge at the their mountain camps there. The terrorist group uses the region as a launchpad for its attacks inside Turkey.

In the meantime, escape from the terrorist organization has continued. More than 160 terrorists surrendered to Turkish soldiers over the past six months, sources said.

Source: Cumhuriyet
URL: en.cumhuriyet.com/?hn=157716

According to the Batman Governor’s Office, the attack on Turkish commando troops took place at around 20:50 hours.

Wounded soldiers have been taken to the Military Hospital in Diyarbakir and they are not in life-threatening condition.

Source: Cumhuriyet
URL: en.cumhuriyet.com/?hn=155332

Terrorists opened fire on a military outpost with long range weapons in Semdinli town of Hakkari early on Tuesday. Three soldiers were killed while three others were wounded.

Nine terrorists were killed in the ensuing clashes that erupted between soldiers and terrorists.

Wide scale operations were launched in the region in pursuit of escaping terrorists.

Meanwhile another terrorist group opened harassing fire on a military patrol in the Yuksekova town of Hakkari, injuring two soldiers.

The injured soldiers were taken to a military hospital. Special units were dispatched to the area with helicopters.

Source: Cumhuriyet
URL: en.cumhuriyet.com/?hn=154936

The blast late Saturday ripped through a section of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline near Midyat, in Mardin province, sparking a fire, the source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said. The blaze was put out early Sunday.

Militants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were believed to have bombed the pipeline, and a security operation was underway in the area, added the source. There was no immediate claim of responsibility from the PKK.

The 970-kilometre (600-mile) pipeline runs from Iraq’s northern oil hub of Kirkuk to the port of Ceyhan on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, from where the crude is shipped to world markets by tanker. The twin conduit, first inaugurated in 1976, carried 167.6 million barrels of oil last year, according to Turkish statistics.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, has sabotaged the pipeline several times in the past as part of its armed campaign against the Ankara government. The pipeline has also been repeatedly attacked by Sunni Arab insurgents inside Iraq since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003. The Turkish source said that PKK rebels also attacked a military unity in Beytussebap town in the neighbouring province of Sirnak late Saturday, triggering a firefight that left two militants dead.

The clash also wounded two civilians and two village guards — members of a Kurdish militia force paid and armed by the government to assist security forces in their fight against the PKK, he added. Security forces were scouring the area for the attackers. The fresh violence comes at a time when the PKK has significantly escalated attacks against Turkish targets after jailed rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan said in May that he was abandoning efforts for peace with Turkey and the rebels called off a unilateral truce earlier this month.

In their bloodiest attack in two years, the PKK killed 12 soldiers last month in an attack on a border unit at the Iraqi frontier, while five soldiers and a teenager were killed in a bomb attack in Istanbul claimed by the rebels. Five members of the security forces and 12 terrorists were killed in clashes inside Turkey on Thursday, which prompted a Turkish air strike on the rebels’ rear bases in northern Iraq.

Source: Cumhuriyet
URL: en.cumhuriyet.com/?hn=154390

Syrian security forces have staged operations against the terrorist organization PKK in Aleppo, Kamishli, Afrin, Al Hasaka and Al Raqqa cities, and detained 400 people on charges of being a member of the terrorist organization. The detainees are also interrogated on charges of collecting unjust money, attempting to divide Syria and establish a separate state, and dissolve Kurds living in Syria ethnically and religiously.

Also, Syria decided to implement harsh sanctions against families of Kurdish descend who provide logistical support to the terrorist organization PKK. Syrian authorities have said that they would get back the rights of such people who were given the right to use Syrian territories.

Eleven terrorists were killed in clashes between security forces and PKK terrorists in various Syrian cities last week. Syrian President Bashar al-Asad, who visited Turkey some time ago, had said acts of the terrorist organization were unacceptable, Turkish and Syrian security forces were cooperating against terrorism.

Source: Cumhuriyet
URL: http://en.cumhuriyet.com/?hn=153640

PKK members attacked the outpost of a commando battalion near Doğan village of Pervari district, killing a lieutenant and three village guards supporting the military in its fight against the PKK.

A lieutenant died and two soldiers were wounded in the first fire by the terrorist group, which was trying to infiltrate the outpost.

Three village guards in a group on its way to the clash point were killed in an ambush by PKK militants.

Supporting commandos were sent to the district by helicopters while a wide military operation was launched to locate those responsible for the attack. Sources from the armed forces reported that 11 PKK members were killed in the ensuing battle.

The PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, has dramatically stepped up its attacks in the past month, threatening to spread the violence outside of the Southeast, which has been its main area of operations.

PKK attacks have claimed the lives of 19 soldiers and two civilians in the last two weeks.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News
URL: www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=one-turkish-soldier-three-village-guards-killed-in-pkk-attack-2010-07-01

Sergeant Mehmet Bosnak (37), who was seriously wounded in the attack, lost his life at hospital’s intensive care unit today.

Four sergeants, a non-commissioned officer and the 17-year-old daughter of an officer were killed and 10 others were wounded when terrorists detonated a roadside remote-control bomb as the bus carrying military personnel and their families passed shortly after leaving a military housing complex.

Source: Cumhuriyet
URL: en.cumhuriyet.com/?hn=152318

The terrorists attacked a patrol and the outpost not far away in a rural area in the province of Elazığ, the Anatolia news agency and broadcaster NTV said.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, has dramatically stepped up violence this month, threatening to spread its attacks outside of the country’s Southeast, its main area of operation.

PKK attacks have claimed the lives of 19 soldiers and two civilians since last weekend.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News
URL: www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkish-soldiers-civilian-killed-in-kurdish-attack-media-2010-06-25