Turkey kills 20 PKK Kurdish militants after botched assault

The Turkish military killed 20 fighters from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) after they tried to attack army bases in the southeastern Hakkari province, the military said today.

The Kurdish fighters crossed into Turkey from northern Iraq and attempted to launch attacks on military bases in the mountainous border region, the military said, without giving further details.

Sources indicate that the PKK militants made several botched attempts at assaulting Turkish military installations, and sustained heavy casualties as a result.

Turkey’s mainly Kurdish, though ethnically diverse, southeast has been rocked by violence since a two-and-a-half-year ceasefire between the government and the PKK broke down in July last year.

The PKK, which is designated as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, first took up arms in 1984. More than 40,000 people, most of them civilians, have died in the fighting since, including PKK attacks on civilian targets in major Turkish cities.