Kurdish terrorists raided 3 military posts in simultaneous attacks near the border with Iraq, sparking a clash at one paramilitary outpost that left 6 soldiers and 14 rebels dead. Two government-paid village guards assisting the Turkish military were also killed.

The Hakkari governor’s office wrote in a statement the Kurdish rebels fired on military posts in Hakkari province, near the border with Iraq, including the paramilitary station near the village of Gecimli, about 20 kilometers from the border.

It said the attack near Gecimli triggered clashes that claimed the lives of 22 rebels, soldiers and village guards. At least 15 soldiers, another village guard and five civilians were also injured in the attack.

The attack comes some 6 weeks after a similar raid on a military unit, also in Hakkari province, killed 18 rebels and 8 soldiers, prompting Turkey’s military to send warplanes and attack helicopters to hit Kurdish rebel targets inside Iraq.

Kurdish rebels clash with Turkish soldiers / 22 people killed in the attack near the village of Gecimili

22 Turkish citizens have died in south-east Turkey after Kurdish rebels launched an attack on a Turkish border post, according to local media. The rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, are fighting for autonomy in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast region and maintain bases in northern Iraq from where they launch hit-and-run attacks on Turkish targets. The conflict between the Kurdish and Turkish government forces has killed tens of thousands of people since the rebels took up arms in 1984.

The Kurdish group is considered a terrorist organization by the US and the European Union. Turkey has raised concerns that Kurdish rebels could now also exploit a power vacuum in neighbouring Syria and warned it would ‘ not tolerate ‘ any rebel threats from the Syrian territory.

The Turkish government said last month that Turkish Kurdish rebels have seized control of 5 towns along the border in collaboration with Syria’s Democratic Union Party, or PYD — an ethnic Kurdish grouping and has launched military drills near the frontier in a show of muscle aimed at the rebels.

22 people have died in south-east Turkey after Kurdish terrorists launched an attack on a Turkish border post

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the attack was a dastardly assault and issued a warning to countries allegedly backing the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).  Erdogan has said Turkey was powerful enough to bring into line enemy-country (puppet masters) who hold the strings of the terror organization. He did not name any countries and it was not clear if the statement was aimed at Syria, in relation to the PKK presence there.

Turkish PM Erdogan has recently ruled out negotiating with the PKK to end the decades-old conflict and said state security forces would continue their struggle against the group until it lays down arms. The government has acknowledged that some officials have in the past held secret talks with the rebels that were subsequently abandoned.

An estimated 20% of Turkey’s 75 million population are Kurds. The government is trying to appease the Kurdish minority by granting it more cultural rights.

[adrotate banner=”33″]