Turkish soldiers and Kurdish fighters clashed in the most intense battles of the separatist conflict this year, with 18 people killed in three army outposts in the southeast, Turklsh officials and security sources say.
Up to 100 Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters launched simultaneous attacks at dawn on Tuesday on the three military observation points in Hakkari province near the mountainous border with Iraq, killing eight soldiers and wounding 16, the sources said.
In subsequent clashes Turkish troops killed 10 PKK fighters, the Hakkari governor’s office said.