News Directory

Five Kurdish Rebels Killed

SIRNAK, KOMPAS.com - Security forces killed five rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the bloodiest clashes in southeastern Turkey in recent months, military sources said on Thursday (1/4/2010).

Firefight erupted in the province of Hakkari near the Iraqi border, Wednesday night after a soldier dealing with one group comprised 20 members of the rebels, said the sources who are unwilling to name mentioned.

"The army launched an operation in Hakkari this week after three soldiers on patrol was killed by a bomb blast. Thousands of troops are in the area," said the sources.

PKK, which is mostly based in northern Iraq, April 2009 said it would not be an attack but in recent weeks the rebels launched an attack directed against the Turkish military.

Rebels launched an armed rebellion for 25 years to establish an autonomous region in the southeastern region of the predominantly ethnic Turkish Kurds in a conflict that killed 40,000 people.