PKK fighters ambushed a Turkish military convoy that was crossing a
bridge in the Hakari province along the Iraqi border. At least 16 soldiers
were killed when the bridge was blown up near the village of Daglica.
"Our boys are dying," Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul said.
Hours later, Turkish forces conducted attacks throughout the border
area. At least 23 PKK combatants were killed in Turkish military operations,
which included shelling inside northern Iraq.
The sources said more than 60,000 Turkish troops, backed by M-60A3 main
battle tanks, armored personnel carriers and AH-1W Cobra helicopters, were
scouring the border area for PKK insurgents. At the same time, Turkish
artillery units were pounding suspected PKK strongholds in the Kandil
mountains in northern Iraq.
"The clashes are still under way,' Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Cemil
Cicek said. "Every kind of attack will be avenged many times over."
On Oct. 17, Turkey's parliament approved a military plan for a
counter-insurgency operation inside Iraq. But the government of Prime
Minister Recep Erdogan said it has not ordered such an attack.
Still, Turkey has urged the United States to support the elimination of
PKK bases in northern Iraq. On Sunday, Gonul met U.S. Defense Secretary
Robert Gates while U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan.
"We like to do these things with the Americans," Gonul said.
Both Gates and Rice urged Turkey not to order the military into Iraq.
The two American secretaries said any invasion would destabilize Iraq and
spark an international crisis.
"I didn't have the impression that anything is imminent," Gates said
after he met Gonaul at a defense ministers meeting in Kiev. "A major
cross-border operation would be contrary to Turkey's interest as well as to
our own and to that of Iraq."