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Fourteen police killed by PKK as Turkey violence spirals

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AFP Ankara
Fourteen Turkish police were killed today in a new attack by Kurdish militants as violence in the east threatened to spiral out of control and Ankara launched a massive wave of air strikes against rebel strongholds in northern Iraq.

The 14 police were killed in the eastern region of Igdir in a bomb attack by Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants on a minibus taking them to the Dilucu border post with neighbouring Azerbaijan, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

The attack came two days after 16 Turkish soldiers were killed in a twin roadside bomb attack in Daglica in the southeastern region of Hakkari, according to the army, the deadliest strike in the current phase of the conflict.
 

Anatolia said that 12 police were killed in today's attack, with two more losing their lives in hospital. Two others are being treated in Igdir city hospital, it said.

A PKK spokesman in northern Iraq confirmed to AFP that the PKK had carried out the attack.

The deaths prompted Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu vow to "wipe out" PKK militants from the mountains of eastern Turkey.

The PKK, known for sometimes exaggerating the death tolls of its attacks, said 31 Turkish soldiers had been killed in Sunday's gun and bomb attack in Daglica.

Turkey has staged air strikes and ground operations against the PKK in its strongholds of southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq in a bid to inflict a mortal blow on its capacities.

But the PKK has hit back, killing dozens of Turkish police and soldiers in almost daily attacks, with the bloodier attacks marking a new intensification of the conflict.

In response to the Daglica attack, Turkish warplanes launched a massive air operation early today in northern Iraq, killing as many as 40 rebels, Anatolia said.

More than 50 Turkish jets were involved in the six hours of raids, killing "35 to 40 terrorists according to preliminary findings", it added.

A spokesman for the PKK in northern Iraq, Zagros Hiwa, told AFP in Iraq that the Turkish air strikes had lasted from 11:00 pm (local time) yesterday until 5:00 am (local time) today.

"These terrorists must be wiped out from the mountains," Davutoglu said yesterday.

"The mountains of this country, the plains, highlands, cities, will be not abandoned to terrorists," he said.

The violence has left in tatters a 2013 ceasefire aimed at allowing a final peace deal to end the PKK's three-decade insurgency, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

The PKK initially took up arms in 1984 with the aim of establishing an independent state for Turkey's Kurdish minority, although lately the demands focused on greater autonomy and rights.

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First Published: Sep 08 2015 | 6:48 PM IST

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