TURKEY: A state ceremony held for six soldiers killed by suspected Kurdish militants/Prime Minister Erdogan vows to carry out incursion into northern Iraq

Record ID: 561147

  • Title: TURKEY: A state ceremony held for six soldiers killed by suspected Kurdish militants/Prime Minister Erdogan vows to carry out incursion into northern Iraq
  • Date: 26th September 2011
  • Summary: DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY (SEPTEMBER 25, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF FUNERAL CEREMONY FOR DEAD SOLDIERS MILITARY OFFICIALS AND MINISTERS ATTENDING THE CEREMONY SOLDIERS STANDING ON GUARD IN FRONT OF THE COFFINS CEREMONY IN PROGRESS COMMANDERS AND MINISTERS PRAYING SOLDIERS CARRYING THE COFFINS AWAY MINISTERS AND COMMANDERS MOURNING VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS CARRYING THE COFFINS AWAY AMBULANCES CARRYING THE COFFINS DRIVING AWAY ANKARA, TURKEY (SEPTEMBER 25, 2011) (REUTERS) TURKISH PRIME MINISTER, TAYYIP ERDOGAN, HOLDING NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Turkish) TURKISH PRIME MINISTER, TAYYIP ERDOGAN, SAYING: "This period would be calmer if we didn't make great achievements in cross-border operations. We have to launch these operations and we will launch these operations inside and outside the county." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS
  • Embargoed: 11th October 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey, Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVACTPF6U6IRPGI4LARP4FSQT6A0
  • Story Text: Turkey held a state funeral on Sunday (September 25) for six gendarmarie soldiers killed in a militant attack in the southeast of the country.
    Kurdish guerrillas armed with rocket launchers attacked a military post late on Saturday (September 25), killing six soldiers and wounding eight in a clash in which three rebels were also killed, security sources said.
    They said the attack took place in the town of Pervari in the southeastern province of Siirt.
    Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan vowed to intensify military operations against PKK rebels. He said the militant violence was in response to Turkey's counter-insurgency operations in Iraq.
    "This period would be calmer if we didn't make great achievements with cross-border operations. We have to launch these operations and we will launch these operations inside and outside the county," Erdogan told a news conference in Ankara.
    The attack came at a time of heightened tension between Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels and the Turkish military, which has launched air strikes and artillery raids against suspected PKK bases in northern Iraq in retaliation for a recent spate of militant attacks inside Turkey.
    Turkey has threatened to carry out an incursion into northern Iraq to attack PKK bases there, despite opposition from Iraq's regional Kurdish government.
    A wave of PKK attacks has raised the possibility of a return to a hardline government stance in the 27-year-old fight against the rebels, with Erdogan recently warning he had lost patience with the PKK.
    The PKK, branded a terrorist group by Ankara, Washington and the European Union, took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 to fight for Kurdish autonomy. More than 40,000 people have died in the separatist insurgency.
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