By RIA Novosti
Ankara : Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said his government would take all possible steps under international law to crack down on Kurdish militants.
Turkey’s leadership gathered for an emergency meeting late Sunday evening after a deadly attack by militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) early in the day killed at least 12 Turkish soldiers. The attack occurred in the Hakkari province, bordering northern Iraq, when rebels blew up a bridge as a 12-vehicle military convoy was crossing it.
“Whatever price is necessary, we will pay it,” Erdogan told a news conference after the meeting.
Turkey’s parliament sanctioned last Wednesday military cross-border operations against around 3,500 PKK militants, believed to be based in Iraq, following an earlier government request.
“Although Turkey respects Iraq’s territorial integrity, it will not tolerate aiding and abetting terrorism, and it will not be deterred from paying the price to protect its rights, indivisible integrity and citizens,” Turkey’s leaders said in a statement after the Sunday meeting.
The US condemned the Kurdish attack, but urged Turkey not to launch a cross-border offensive against Kurdish rebels.
Erdogan said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had asked him over the telephone on Sunday to hold off any cross-border actions “for a few days”.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s General Staff confirmed that army units, backed by helicopters, were attacking PKK rebels along the border with Iraq, and that artillery had pounded 63 suspected rebel positions.
The PKK, listed by the US, NATO and the EU as a terrorist organisation, has been fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey for nearly 25 years, with the associated violence claiming some 40,000 lives, and has recently intensified attacks along the Iraqi border.