Fifteen Turkish soldiers were killed in clashes with Kurdish separatist PKK rebels in southeast Turkey on Friday, Turkey's General Staff said, in one of the deadliest attacks on the military this year. At least 23 members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were also killed after rebels based in northern Iraq fired heavy weapons at a military outpost in the Semdinli region bordering Iraq and Iran, the military said.
The attack is likely to put pressure on Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to strike back at the PKK. It also threatens to strain ties between Iraq and Turkey, which has accused Baghdad of not doing enough to crush PKK rebels.
Turkey has attacked PKK bases in northern Iraq several times over the past 12 months but has confined itself to shelling and air strikes since a brief land offensive in February.
The General Staff said two Turkish soldiers were missing and that an operation was under way to rescue them. It said "most of our losses were caused by heavy weapon fire from the north of Iraq".
A Reuters correspondent on the Turkish side of the border saw Turkish attack helicopters and F-16 fighter jets flying over the area yesterday. Special forces were being deployed.
Attacks by PKK rebels based in Iraq are a major irritant in relations between Ankara and Baghdad. Washington and the European Union have expressed concerns that prolonged Turkish military operations inside Iraq could further destabilise Iraq and the wider region.
Yesterday, Turkey's Foreign Ministry urged Baghdad to "take necessary precautions and prevent the repetition of such attacks".
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh condemned the PKK attack but called on Ankara to act with "wisdom and self-restraint".
Nato and the EU condemned in separate statements the PKK attack.
Erdogan cut short an official visit to Turkmenistan yesterday to chair an emergency security meeting in Ankara.
"The struggle against terrorism will continue with the same determination as before," he told an audience in Ashgabat.
Parliament is this month likely to approve a government request to extend a mandate to launch military operations against the PKK in Iraq as needed. The current mandate expires on October 17.
Turkey blames the PKK, considered a terrorist organisation by the US and the EU, for the deaths of more than 40,000 people since it launched its campaign for an ethnic Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.
Washington is sharing vital intelligence with Turkey on PKK movements in Iraq.
The attack is the first serious challenge for Turkey's new military chief, General Ilker Basbug, who took over Nato's second largest army in August.
Basbug has said that, while military operations against the PKK will continue, socio-economic measures are needed to bring peace to the impoverished southeast.
Erdogan has announced plans to invest up to $12 billion in southeast Turkey over five years in an effort to improve living standards and drain support for the PKK.
The ruling AK Party hopes to wrest control of key cities in the southeast such as Diyarbakir from a pro-Kurdish political party in municipal elections next March.