Diyarbakir, TURKEY (Agencies)
Turkish troops and Kurdish guerrillas clashed overnight in southeast Turkey, killing eight soldiers and 12 rebels, Turkey's military headquarters said on Saturday.
The battle at Semdinli in Hakkari province, near the border with Iraq, re-kindled the conflict in the region and prompted the armed forces to hit Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets inside northern Iraq later.
The PKK militants touched off the fighting with an attack on an army border unit and 14 soldiers were wounded, the General Staff said in a statement on its website. The wounded have been transferred to hospitals.
"Reinforcements were sent to the region and throughout the night support was provided to the conflict zone by attack helicopters and artillery. Separately, the Air Force struck targets identified in the northern region of Iraq," it said.
The military responded with helicopters and reportedly killed 12 rebels, the army statement added.
There has been an increase in separatist conflict in the mainly Kurdish southeast in recent weeks.
On Friday the Turkish military announced that at least 130 members of the PKK had been killed inside Turkey and in an air raid on rebel hideouts in Iraq since violence flared anew in March. The military had lost 43 personnel.
The military also said it expected the PKK to further intensify and spread its attacks.
The mounting violence in recent months has clouded the government's bid to seek a peaceful end to the 26-year-old conflict with Kurdish rebels seeking a separate homeland in the country's southeast.
The conflict with the PKK, considered a terrorist organization by Turkey and much of the international community, has claimed more than 45,000 lives since it began in 1984, according to the army.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2010/06/19/111734.html
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