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[Stereogatari]

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/several-turkish-soldiers-killed-in-major-pkk-attack.aspx

Several Turkish soldiers were killed on Sept. 6 in a major attack in the southeastern province of Hakkari that has been carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants, marking a crescendo in a deadly stream of attacks since July.

There was no immediate official casualty toll but in a sign of the gravity of the situation Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu broke off a trip to Konya to watch a national football game and summoned an emergency security meeting in Ankara, the state-run Anadolu Agency said.

Militants staged a mine attack on two military vehicles in a convoy in the Dağlıca district of Hakkari, a town bordering Iraq and Iran, security sources told daily Hürriyet. After the explosion, militants opened fire on troops.

Turkish F-4 and F-16 warplanes carried out strikes in retaliation against 10 targets controlled by the militants suspected to have carried out the attack, according to Anadolu Agency.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reacted to the attack during a live television interview but also did not give any casualty figures.

"A mine attack has been staged. There will be a very particular and decisive fight there. We are very sad," he told private broadcaster A Haber.

"The weather conditions were unfavourable. A struggle was being waged under such conditions," he said, adding the attack happened during a "clean-up operation" against PKK militants.

The PKK claimed the attack as an "act of sabotage", in a statement on the website of its military wing, the People’s Defence Forces (HPG).

The group -- which is known for on occasion exaggerating tolls of the security forces -- said 15 Turkish soldiers had been killed.

Davutoğlu, who had watched Turkey defeat the Netherlands in a key Euro 2016 qualifier in Konya, was rushed in his motorcade to attend the security meeting with officials including Gen. Hulusi Akar, Chief of General Staff, and National Intelligence Organization (MİT) Undersecretary Hakan Fidan.

The PKK has been staging daily attacks against the Turkish armed forces as the military presses an over month-long operation against the group in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq.

The violence has left in tatters a 2013 ceasefire aimed at assisting the search for a final peace deal to end the PKK’s three-decade insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Earlier Sept. 6, two Turkish police were killed in an attack in the Sur district of southeastern city of Diyarbakır that was attributed to the PKK, security sources told AFP.

Some 70 members of the security forces have been killed since July in attacks blamed on the PKK, while official media have claimed that at least 967 militants have been killed.

The unrest comes at a explosive time in Turkey as the country prepares to hold snap elections on Nov. 1 following June 7 polls where the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its overall majority.

I feel sick to my stomach. Who knows what part of Turkey these soldiers were recruited from, what their life stories are, what loved ones were worrying for them. I can't take this war anymore, I almost want to say give them their landlocked country, end this nonsense, save the state's money going to waste in developing the region and deploying military.

Will we ever see a Northern Ireland type settlement for South-Eastern Turkey? I envy the pacification of the IRA. Such waste of life on both sides. Our ancestors fought together to keep this country whole at the behest of European imperialism, and for decades since then our guns are pointed at each other.

Those dead conscripts could be my relatives or friends on another day. It's sickening. Thank god the rest of Turkey is and always has been stable, but the South-East (as usual) is an absolute mess right now.

I was happy our football team beat Holland 3-0, but I can't enjoy that anymore.

 

[Guerrillas in the Mist]

RIP. It's an utter shame that the region's chance for peace seems to have slipped away again.

 

[Stereogatari]

RIP. It's an utter shame that the region's chance for peace seems to have slipped away again.

South-East Turkey, Syria and Iraq. All an absolute mess. The cradle of civilisation for goodness sake, where agriculture began.

 

[maquiladora]

Sounds like a big gun battle in Cizre after that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xhvr8ayNpQ