Kurdish Rebels Kill 12 Turkish Soldiers

PM Erdogan calls crisis talks; military response is likely imminent
By Caroline Zimmerman,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 21, 2007 11:51 AM CDT
Kurdish Rebels Kill 12 Turkish Soldiers
A military vehicle escorts ambulances, carrying wounded Turkish soldiers, near the city of Hakkari, southeastern Turkey, Sunday, Oct. 21, 2007. Kurdish rebels ambushed a military unit near Turkey's border with Iraq early Sunday, killing 12 soldiers and increasing pressure on the Turkish government to...   (Associated Press)

Kurdish rebels killed 12 Turkish troops and wounded 16 more in a surprise attack in Turkey today, Reuters reports, four days after parliament voted to allow military strikes against the Kurdistan Workers' Party in northern Iraq. Now, the pressure is on for the Turkish government to take decisive military action, and PM Tayyip Erdogan has called crisis talks to determine a response.

"Iraq continues to harbor terrorists and Turkey has the right to eliminate the terrorists," said Turkey's president. The parliament measure was intended mostly as political pressure on the US, but now an incursion may be imminent. "We cannot expect Turkey to remain silent," said one commentator. The ambush is among the worst in the past decade, and came as the country voted on constitutional changes. (More Kurdish Militants stories.)

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