Turkey says 16 soldiers killed in PKK attack

The Turkish army today said the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) killed 16 of its soldiers in a roadside bomb attack at the weekend, one of the deadliest attacks carried out by the group.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu vowed after yesterday's attack to "wipe out" the PKK rebels from their mountain strongholds, with no end in sight to the Turkish military's one-and-half month campaign against the Kurdish rebels.
Breaking a day-long silence over the toll, the army said the PKK staged a roadside bomb attack that severely damaged two armoured vehicles in the Daglica area of the southeastern Hakkari region close to the border with northern Iraq.

"Sixteen of our brave comrades-in-arms were martyred," the army said in a statement, adding six others suffered non life-threatening injuries.
It was not clear why it had taken the army a day to publish the toll.
Speaking after meeting Turkey's top general Hulusi Akar in Ankara, Davutoglu said there would be no compromise with the PKK.

"These terrorists must be wiped out from the mountains; whatever happens they must be wiped out," Davutoglu said.
"The mountains of this country, the plains, highlands, cities, will be not abandoned to terrorists," he said.
The PKK, known for sometimes exaggerating tolls of attacks on the security forces, said 31 Turkish soldiers had been killed in a combination of bombing and shooting attacks.

Davutoglu said the claims of a higher toll were part of a "psychological operation" aimed at "demoralising the nation".
"We must stand together against this black propaganda," he said.
The Hurriyet daily said 400 kilogrammes of explosives had been used in the attack and some 150 PKK militants had taken part, leading to clashes that lasted some seven hours.
The army said it had retaliated with three F-4 warplanes and four F-16s launching air strikes on 23 PKK targets including caves and storage facilities.
The PKK has been staging daily attacks against the armed forces as the military presses a relentless operation against the group in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq that began in late July.

But yesterday's attack was by far the deadliest to be carried out by the PKK since the current fighting erupted.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement he "strongly condemned the atrocious attack that caused the martyrdom and injuries of our soldiers."
The violence has left in tatters a 2013 ceasefire aimed at assisting the search for a final peace deal to end the PKK's three-decade insurgency, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives.