By Xinhua
Ankara : Turkish Deputy Prime Minister and government spokesman, Cemil Cicek, said Sunday that militants of the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) were trying to avoid casualties in face of artillery fire from the Turkish security forces, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.
“Turkish security forces opened artillery bombardment on more than 60 possible targets. Clashes continue,” Cicek was quoted as saying after a meeting at the prime minister’s compound to assess terrorism.
Cicek said a heinous attack took place on a military unit in Daglica region in southeastern province of Hakkari at 00:02 a.m. local time (2102 GMT on Saturday) and “12 soldiers died and 16 others were injured in an ensuing clash.”
In a retaliation offensive launched by the Turkish army, 32 PKK militants have been killed so far, said Cicek, adding that “places where the terrorists can flee are circled and security forces are shelling the routes they can escape.”
“Every kind of attack against our state, nation and security forces will be avenged many times over,” said Cicek. “Wide-scale operations are underway. Our state is firm to deal with terrorism.”
Cicek called on Turkish citizens to be calm and rely on the state and security forces and not to be deceived by the provocations. “We will make statements whenever necessary,” he said.
The PKK aimed to disrupt Turkey’s social unity and integrity with such kind of bloody acts, and the best response “will be to have a strong social cooperation,” he said.
He said it was not possible to make an overall statement since the clashes are still under way.
The PKK’s attack and Turkey’s response came four days after the Turkish parliament approved a motion backing the cross-border military operations targeting the PKK based in northern Iraq.
The PKK has increased its attacks on government troops in southeastern Turkey, which led to rising Turkish demands for an incursion into northern Iraq to crush the rebels based there.
The group, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the EU, launched an armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in the mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking decades of strife that has claimed more than 30,000 lives.