Clashes between Turkish security forces and autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels have claimed nearly 60 lives in the southeast and across the border in northern Iraq, officials said today.
More than 30 Kurdish rebels were killed overnight in a cross-border military operation in northern Iraq, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a meeting with dozens of district administrators.
Kurdish militants killed two police officers Monday night in the southern city of Adana. Gov. Mustafa Buyuk said assailants riding a motorcycle fired on a police vehicle outside a hospital in Adana before fleeing.
Turkey's military, meanwhile, said six rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, were killed yesterday in a clash with the security forces in Hakkari province, near the border with Iraq.
At least 19 others were killed in airstrikes Friday conducted by Turkish jets against suspected PKK targets in northern Iraq's Gara region, a military statement said on Tuesday, without elaborating.
The reports of PKK deaths couldn't be verified independently.
