DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Oct 8 (AFP): Kurd separatist rebels killed a Turkish soldier early Monday only hours after 13 others were killed in fighting near the Iraq border, authorities said.
The latest fatality in the military was blown up by a mine in the Lice district of Diyarbakir province in southeast Turkey, local authorities said.
The army said that 13 soldiers were killed Sunday in an attack by the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Sirnak province, bordering Iraq, Anatolia news agency reported.
A PKK rebel was killed while fighting the army in the Mount Cudi area of Sirnak, the regional government reported.
On Saturday, the army announced that it has created 27 new temporary security zones, reinforcing the already existing plan to deter rebel movement in the Sirnak, Siirt and Hakkari provinces, all close to the border with Iraq.
Ankara estimates that there are thousands of PKK rebels who are supported or tolerated by Iraqi Kurds.
Twelve people were killed at the end of September after a minibus was machine-gunned in Sirnak province, the PKK's bloodiest attack in Turkey in recent years.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, has waged a bloody campaign for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish east and southeast since 1984. The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.
14 Turkish soldiers killed in renewed Kurd attacks
FE Team | Published: October 09, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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