Didim Today

Turkish warplanes launched air raids at suspected Kurdish terrorist positions in northern Iraq yesterday after a terrorist attack on a military outpost in Turkey sparked off clashes in which eight soldiers and 12 terrorist fighters died.

Special forces were also immediately sent to reinforce the border area where the clashes occurred and Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish terrorist positions in northern Iraq, the military said, without providing any further details. Fourteen other soldiers were wounded in the fighting.

Kurdish terrorist have dramatically stepped up attacks in Turkey recently, threatening a government attempt to end one of the world’s longest terrorist guerrilla wars. The military said on Friday that more than 40 soldiers had been killed since March and warned that it anticipated more attacks.

Turkey’s military has responded by sending warplanes across the border for raids on terrorist bases, while commandos crossed the border in pursuit of the terrorist earlier last week.

The terrorist belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, have used northern Iraq as a springboard to stage hit-and-run attacks on Turkish targets in their decades-long campaign for autonomy in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated south-east. The Turkish military says around 4,000 terrorist are based in Iraq and that about 2,500 operate inside Turkey.

The group declared it was increasing attacks on 1 June, a day after imprisoned Kurdish terrorist chief Abdullah Ocalan said in a statement relayed by his lawyers that his calls for dialogue with Turkey had been ignored and that he was giving his consent to the terrorist command in northern Iraq to determine which course of action to take.

The US, which, along with the EU, has declared the PKK to be a terrorist group, has provided intelligence to Turkey in support of its fight against the terrorist. The conflict has killed as many as 40,000 people since 1984.

The nationalist opposition party Saturday called on the government to hold early general elections after the recent PKK attack that killed ten soldiers in the southeastern province of Hakkari.

Devlet Bahceli, the chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), said that the prime minister should call for an early elections after Saturday’s PKK attack.

Bahceli’s remarks came after ten soldiers died and 16 others were wounded in a PKK attack in Hakkari’s Semdinli town. Eight of the militants were killed and 14 of them were injured in the attack on a military outpost in Semdinli, whereas two soldiers died and two others were wounded as they stepped on a land mine when following the militants who attacked on the military outpost.

“The number of soldiers killed in terrorist attacks has reached 125 after Erdogan launched the PKK initiative,” Bahceli said. Bahceli accused Erdogan and the Justice & Development (AK) Party of taking steps that would debilitate security forces in fight against PKK.