Ankara: Turkish security forces killed 12 Kurdish militants after they were found crossing the border from Iraq, the military said on Saturday.
A media report said that Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas were killed during operations on late Friday and early Saturday in the southeast province of Sirnak.
Meanwhile a soldier was killed by a mine blast. The soldier died in Hakkari, another insurgency- plagued province bordering both Iran and Iraq, state-run Antaolian news agency reported. Some PKK insurgents operate from bases in the Qandil Mountains of northern Iraq.
The PKK ended a six-month ceasefire in February and there have been fears of rising violence before a parliamentary election on June 12 that is expected to result in a comfortable third successive victory for Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party.
Jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan has threatened “war” unless the government enters talks after the election to end a separatist clash that has dragged on for 27 years, leaving more than 40,000 people dead.
The PKK last week claimed responsibility for an ambush that killed a police officer and wounded another in the northern Black Sea province of Kastamonu after an election rally by Erdogan.
The PKK said police have been attacked in retaliation for operations and arrests in the southeast. Erdogan has accused the militants of being behind several petrol bomb attacks on the offices of his AK Party.
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