Turks, Kurd Rebels Clash; 22 Die
Twenty-two people have been killed in five separate clashes with Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkey in the last three days, officials said Thursday.
The dead were 10 soldiers, three policemen, six village guards and three guerrillas of the banned Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), which is fighting for autonomy for Turkey’s 8 million Kurds.
Three of the clashes took place near Uludere, 13 miles from the Iraqi border. About 60,000 Iraqi Kurdish rebels and civilians have fled across the frontier in the last month to escape a major offensive by the Baghdad government.
Turkish newspapers said that about 100 Iraqi-based PKK rebels are believed to have infiltrated across the border with the fleeing Iraqi Kurds.
More than 1,100 people have been killed in Turkey since the Kurdish group launched its latest guerrilla war for Kurdish autonomy in 1984.
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