|
Fighting with Kurdish Rebels Leaves 3 Turkish Troops Dead
[An Nahar] Three Turkish soldiers were killed early on Friday in a firefight with Kurdish rebels in the southeast of the country, local security sources said.The clash with members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) occurred after the rebels attacked a military patrol in a rural zone of Tunceli, the sources said. In a separate attack blamed on Kurdish rebels, two coppers were maimed when gunnies sprayed their car with machine gun fire in Sirnak near the border with Iraq and Syria, they said. The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and by much of the international community, took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives. Fighting between the two sides usually escalates in spring as snow melts along the mountainous Iraqi-Turkish border, enabling rebels holed up in rough terrain to launch attacks more easily. Posted by: Fred 2012-05-05 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=344069 |