14 Kurdish rebels killed in clashes

Turkish soldiers killed eight Kurdish rebels, increasing the rebel death toll to 14 in a two-day clash near the border with Iraq, the military said.

The fighting began Tuesday on Mt. Gabar, in Turkey’s Sirnak province, the military said in a statement on its website. Six of the rebels were killed that day, along with one Turkish officer.

The military said the rebels were among a group of guerrillas that killed 13 soldiers in an Oct. 7 ambush in Sirnak. At the time, the military retaliated by shelling areas near the border to prevent rebels from reaching bases in northern Iraq.

That attack, and a similar ambush two weeks later that killed 12 soldiers, sparked anger in Turkey and widespread calls for the military to cross the border to hit bases of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq.