TURKEY: Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan calls crisis talks with top military and government officials after Kurdish rebels kill at least 13 Turkish soldiers in ambush near IraqI border

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan has called crisis talks with top military and government officials for 1700 GMT on Sunday after Kurdish rebels killed at least 13 Turkish soldiers in an ambush near the Iraq border. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan called crisis talks that may authorise a cross-border military offensive after Kurdish rebels killed at least 12 Turkish soldiers in an ambush on Sunday (October 21) near the Iraqi border. The attack, one of the worst in more than a decade by rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), came four days after the Ankara parliament backed a motion allowing troops to enter northern Iraq to fight guerrillas hiding there. Speaking at an Istanbul polling station after voting in Sunday's referendum on constitutional changes, Erdogan said military and government officials would meet at 8 pm (1700 GMT) under the chairmanship of President Abdullah Gul at the presidential palace to decide how Turkey should respond. Turkey's military general staff said 12 soldiers and 23 rebels were killed in Sunday's clashes. Security sources had said earlier at least 13 Turkish soldiers had been killed. In another incident on Sunday, a landmine killed one civilian and wounded at least 13 more in a minibus travelling near to where the soldiers were killed. The United States, Turkey's NATO ally, and the Baghdad government have urged Ankara to refrain from military action, fearing this could destabilise the most peaceful part of Iraq and possibly the wider region. Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani said on Sunday his autonomous region would defend itself if Turkish troops launched a cross-border incursion. In Arbil, Iraq, a Kurdish military official said the Turkish military had fired artillery shells into about 11 areas along the border in Iraq early on Sunday. There were no casualties. The PKK attack, which wounded up to 16 people, occurred in Hakkari province in the mountainous border area early on Sunday. The pro-PKK Firat news agency said the rebels had taken "many hostages" among the Turkish troops. The report could not be independently confirmed. Turkey has deployed as many as 100,000 troops along the border to try to stop the PKK rebels crossing from Iraqi bases to stage attacks inside Turkey. Erdogan's government is under pressure from public opinion and the powerful military to take action against the PKK following a series of deadly attacks on Turkish security forces.

ITN Source | October 21, 2007

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