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Death Toll In Kurdish Clashes With Turkish Soldiers Reaches 26

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  • Death Toll In Kurdish Clashes With Turkish Soldiers Reaches 26

    DEATH TOLL IN KURDISH CLASHES WITH TURKISH SOLDIERS REACHES 26

    PanARMENIAN.Net
    June 19, 2012 - 21:22 AMT

    PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish soldiers and Kurdish militants clashed
    on Tuesday, June 19 in the most intense battles of the separatist
    conflict this year, with 26 combatants killed in fighting at three
    army outposts in the southeast, officials and security sources said,
    according to Reuters.

    Up to 100 fighters from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) launched
    simultaneous dawn attacks on three military observation points in
    Hakkari province near Turkey's mountainous border with Iraq, killing
    eight soldiers and wounding 19, the sources said.

    In subsequent clashes, Turkish troops killed 18 PKK fighters, the
    prime minister's office said.

    The attacks come at a time when Turkey is making new efforts to
    address the grievances of the Kurdish minority to end a conflict that
    has scarred the region for three decades.

    The head of Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP),
    whose members are frequently accused of ties to the rebels, made a
    striking call for the PKK to halt hostilities.

    The PKK fighters used rocket launchers and rifles at the start of
    the attacks and operations were continuing against the militants,
    the sources said. The militants were believed to have crossed the
    border from nearby northern Iraq.

    Several thousand PKK militants are based in mountain hideouts in
    northern Iraq, from where they regularly launch attacks on state
    targets in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey.

    Armed forces chief General Necdet Ozel rushed to the region, along
    with the commanders of the ground forces and paramilitary gendarmerie,
    Turkish media reported. The interior minister and a deputy prime
    minister also headed there.


    From: Baghdasarian
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