Kurdish Clashes Deep in Turkey Kill 15

Ankara holds out for diplomacy
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 28, 2007 12:15 PM CDT
Kurdish Clashes Deep in Turkey Kill 15
A Turkish soldier patrols the area near the Turkey-Iraq border, in the province of Sirnak, southeast Turkey, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2007. Turkey's top military commander has promised to make Iraq-based Kurdish rebels "grieve with an intensity that they cannot imagine," while the prime minister said his nation...   (Associated Press)

Turkish soldiers killed 15 Kurdish guerrillas today in Tunceli province, several hundred miles from the area bordering Iraq where most of the clashes with Kurdish separatists have taken place, the AP reports. Iraqi-Turkish talks aimed at reconciling the escalating conflict collapsed before the weekend, and sources say that PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Washington on November 5 is Turkey's last stab at diplomacy.

Meanwhile the Times of London visits Kurdish militants in their mountain redoubt on the Iraqi side of the border, where they are gathering forces for the expected Turkish invasion. Members of the rebel party called the PKK, which include some British, Russian, German and Greek volunteers, say they can't be routed out, noting failed Turkish attempts in '95 and ' 97. “Even Saddam Hussein failed,” commented one. (More Kurdistan Workers' Party stories.)

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