Kurdish attacks kill Turkish soldier

Kurdish rebels kept up their attacks on Turkey's military killing one soldier and wounding another in the country's east, bringing this weekend's death toll to 12 soldiers, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday.

Clashes broke out between soldiers and militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) after the rebels attacked a barracks near Palu in eastern Turkey, the agency said.

Security forces launched a search operation to find the assailants, the agency added.

Meanwhile, Turkish troops entered northern Iraq for the second time in five days, penetrating 10km, a security official said yesterday, after warplanes conducted bombing raids on Saturday on PKK rear bases in the neighbouring country.

Three people were killed in the excursion into the Qandil mountains, the official added, without specifying whether the dead were civilians or PKK fighters.

Saturday was the bloodiest day in two years for the Turkish army after Kurdish rebels killed 11 soldiers in the far southeast of the country, the army said.

According to the military, 12 rebels died in a counter-attack. The PKK has vowed to launch attacks in Turkish cities if the government maintains its policy of armed confrontation, said a rebel spokesman.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in turn pledged to keep up the fight against the separatists and said Turkey was willing to "pay the price" to "annihilate" the PKK.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.