42 Turkish soldiers killed in Kurdish attacks Wednesday, 19 October 2011 14:08

ISTANBUL (2nd update):  Twenty-four Turkish soldiers have been killed and 18 others were injured in an attack by Kurdish rebels on an army patrol, Turkish security sources said on Wednesday.

The attack prompted Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to cancel a planned visit to Kazakhstan.

Turkish news network (NTVMSNBC) quoted the sources as saying that the attack occurred in Chokorja, in the province of Hakkari, southeast of the country, noting that the Turkish military units have begun tracking down the rebels.

In Brussels , NATO's chief on Wednesday condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the Kurdish terrorist attacks that killed

24 soldiers and policemen in south-eastern Turkey. "There is no justification for such acts of violence, and I express my condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a statement.

"NATO allies stand in solidarity in the fight against terrorism," Rasmussen reassured NATO-member Turkey.(QNA)

The attacks by Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels on the Turkish troops occurred in eight locations in Cukurca and Yuksekova in Hakkari province near the Iraqi border, during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, local security sources said.

The toll is the heaviest for the army since 1993, when the PKK killed 33 unarmed soldiers in Bingol province, in southeast Turkey. It could rise as at least one of the injured soldiers sustained life-threatening wounds, local health officials said.

Sources on both sides of the conflict confirmed that Turkey had responded to the attacks on the ground and in the air.

Several hundred Turkish soldiers have crossed into northern Iraq to hunt down PKK rebels, Kurdish news agency Firatnews said.

"Turkish soldiers from two separate points in Cukurca town crossed into south Kurdistan to follow (rebels)," said Firat news agency, which is known as a mouthpiece of the PKK.

"Turkish ground forces are attempting to cross the Iraqi border at Jeli, in the Hakkari region" of southeast Turkey, Dozdar Hammo, a PKK spokesman, told AFP.

Turkish army commandos had been flown in by helicopter to the Iraqi side of the border, local security sources said.

Turkish air force planes also bombed Kurdish rebel bases in Iraq in retaliation for the attacks, security sources said.

The air raids targeted Qandil region, the main rear base of the PKK, they added.

Turkish air forces have bombed rebel bases in Iraq several times in recent months, killing nearly 100 rebels, according to the Turkish general staff.

The Turkish parliament earlier this month renewed its mandate for the government to conduct ground incursions into Iraq.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has cancelled a trip to Kazakhstan because of the attacks, NTV said, while Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also scratched a visit to Serbia.

Erdogan, together with interior and defence ministers, intelligence undersecretary and military commanders held an urgent meeting at the prime minister's office, NTV said.

"Turkey will not be shaken by terror ... We will do whatever we can do to finish this," President Abdullah Gul said in televised remarks.

"Those who believe they have shaken our state with those attacks... should know that the revenge for those attacks will be huge."

Clashes between the PKK and the army have escalated since the summer.

On Tuesday, a landmine explosion blamed on Kurdish rebels killed five police and three civilians in southeast Turkey.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives. (QNA and AFP)