TURKEY: Senior Turkish political and military officials meet after Kurdish PKK rebels killed 17 Turkish soldiers in ambush near Iraqi border

Turkish president Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, Chief of armed forces Yasar Buyukanit and other high level officals held an anti-terror meeting in Ankara, after PKK members killed 17 soldiers in an attack on Sunday. Kurdish rebels killed 17 Turkish soldiers and wounded 16 others in an ambush on Sunday (October 21), prompting Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to call crisis talks to consider a military strike against rebel bases in Iraq. The attack, the worst in more than a decade by rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), came four days after Turkey's parliament overwhelmingly approved a motion to allow troops to enter northern Iraq to fight guerrillas hiding there. Senior military and government officials began crisis talks on Sunday evening at the presidential palace in Ankara under President Abdullah Gul to plot Turkey's response. Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul told reporters in Kiev after talks with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates that 17 soldiers had been killed, 16 injured and 10 others were still missing. Asked if there would be a military response to those attacks, Gonul said: "Not urgently. They (Turkish troops) are planning a cross-border (incursion)... We'd like to do these things with the Americans." The United States, Turkey's NATO ally, and Iraq have urged Ankara to refrain from military action, fearing this could destabilise the most peaceful part of Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein. Gates said he did not believe Ankara would launch a major cross-border operation imminently. He also said Gonul implied there was reluctance to act unilaterally against the PKK. U.S. President George W. Bush said the PKK attacks in Turkey were unacceptable and must stop. Turkey's tougher stance has helped propel global oil prices to record highs over the past week. The PKK has said it might target pipelines carrying Iraqi and Caspian crude cross Turkey. Turkey's military general staff said 32 rebels were killed in continuing clashes in the southeast. Turkey shelled areas inside Iraq on Sunday morning but no casualties were reported. In a separate incident on Sunday, a landmine killed one civilian and wounded at least 13 more in a minibus travelling in a wedding convoy near to where the soldiers were killed. Some 3,000 PKK rebels, including its leaders, are believed to be based in camps in the mountainous region of northern Iraq. Iraq's government said it was taking important steps to end what it called the "terrorist actions" of Kurdish rebels who use its mountainous north as a base for attacks on Turkey. Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984. The United States, Turkey and European Union class the PKK as a terrorist organisation.

ITN Source | October 22, 2007

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