Reports that the Turkish force of some 600 private individual moved in the north of Iraq (French)
Turkey said on Wednesday it had killed 15 militants of the PKK at the start of ground operations and air strikes against Hezbollah strongholds in northern Iraq in response tosimultaneous attacks resulted in the deaths of 24 Turkish soldiers.
And targeted attacks that occurred after midnight last night and was attended by betweenone hundred and two hundred armed, according to Turkish security sources, eight sites of the army and police in the province of Hakkari, near the border with Iraq.
Also resulted in coordinated attacks that adopted later in the day the PKK - the worst sincethe party killed 33 soldiers unarmed Turkey in 1993 - the injury of 22 others from the armyand police.
Earlier reports said the death toll in the ranks of the military Turks rose to 26. However, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after a meeting of political and military leadership as prime minister that the death toll at 24.
The television stations and news agencies said that they went down to the Turkish militarywas among the targets that were attacked, and the clash around for thirty minutes.
Immediate response
Before the announcement by the PKK claimed responsibility for the attacks, Turkey sentspecial units to the north of Iraq, where insurgents clashed with the Labour Party.
Identical reports said that up to 600 members of the Turkish special forces sent helicopter gunships and penetrated into northern Iraq, a distance of up to eight kilometers.
And synchronization of the raid, which was confirmed by a source from the Labour Party, told AFP with raids by Turkish warplanes on the presumed positions of Kurdish militants in the Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq.
And Al-Jazeera correspondent in Turkey The Turkish ground incursions into northern Iraq to hunt PKK be an agreement between Ankara and Baghdad. And military operations began with a meeting of leaders of political and military headquarters of the Turks in the prime minister.
Mr Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has canceled visits to Uzbekistan, Kazakh and in turn, directed military commanders to the area where the attacks occurred.He spoke Jazeera's correspondent in Ankara on the indicators of a possible ground operation, large-scale Turkish soon in northern Iraq.
He referred in this context to the visit to Turkey, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, who expressed his country's readiness to control the border with Turkey after that there were frequent across the PKK attacks on Turkish military sites in recent times.
The Labour Party stepped up its attacks on Turkish troops in the past few months, reported the Turkish aviation in August / August bombing their positions in northern Iraq.
It is noteworthy that the Labour Party attacks came hours after the publication of statements came from the party leader Abdullah Ocalan - imprisoned on the island south of Istanbul - he said that the ball is now in the court of the Turkish government in relation to a peaceful settlement of the conflict.
Threat of retaliation
Shortly after the attack, vowed to Turkish President Abdullah Gul severe retaliation fromthe perpetrators of the attack.
Gul warned of help from the Labour Party that he must take the consequences, vowing to continue the fight against terrorism until the end.
For his part, Prime Minister said that his country will continue in the fight against terrorism,alluding to the support of external operations for the PKK.
He also noted Arshad Holmozlo adviser Turkish President for the Middle East to foreignhands may be behind the upsurge in PKK.
Ankara today, and summoned the Ambassador of the European Union has to express hisconcern about the attitude of some European countries lenient towards the Labour Party.The PKK began its armed operations against Turkey in 1984. The estimated number ofvictims of violence associated with this conflict by about 45 thousand people.
Source: Al Jazeera + and agencies
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