Turkish Soldiers Reportedly Kill 44 Kurdish Rebels in Northern Iraq

Turkish troops have killed 44 Kurdish rebels in retaliation for the loss of eight of their own soldiers in a mass offensive into Kurdish-held territory in northern Iraq, military officials said Saturday.

The officials said the clashes, involving about 5,000 Turkish troops and backed by airstrikes by U.S.-made Cobra helicopters and F-16 jet fighters, took place overnight near Turkey’s border with Iraq.

Turkish forces fighting the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, of jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan maintain a presence in northern Iraq and are periodically reinforced when Ankara decides to stage an offensive.

Cobra helicopters were swooping in to hit specific targets based on information from captured guerrillas, officials said. Fifteen rebels were taken prisoner, they said.

Turkey scored an important coup in its struggle against the PKK, fighting for self-rule in the country’s southeast, with the arrest of Ocalan by Turkish special forces in Kenya in February.

Ocalan issued a statement Saturday calling on the PKK to refrain from violence ahead of Turkish elections April 18.

Meanwhile, suspected PKK militants kidnapped Osman Dara, a candidate of the center-right Motherland Party running for parliament in next Sunday’s elections, the Anatolia news agency said.