10 Turkish soldiers killed in Kurdish rebel attack

DIYARBAKIR: Ten Turkish soldiers were killed and 70 wounded Tuesday in a rocket assault by Kurdish rebels on their military convoy, said local security sources.

The convoy was hit by rebel rockets on a highway in southeastern Bingol province, sparking a fire that wounded dozens of soldiers in an army bus.

The number of dead was initially given as four, with 48 wounded, by the local governor later said the casualty toll had risen. Dozens of wounded soldiers were being treated at nearby hospitals, according to the sources.

The Turkish army retaliated with an immediate operation backed by air power in the Bingol area to capture the members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) who staged the attack, Anatolia news agency reported.

"We will have the last word after this attack by ridding Bingol as quickly as possible of these killers," said Bingol governor Hakan Guvencer.

The assailants were identified by witnesses as three men who drove away in a car after the attack, and they were believed to be travelling with heavy explosives on board, NTV private news channel reported.

PKK attacks against Turkish security forces have become almost daily events in the Kurdish-majority southeast, but a powerful rocket ambush carried out in daylight marks a rare incident.

It came a day after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said 500 Kurdish rebels had been killed over the past month.

Last Sunday, eight police officers were killed in a roadside mine blast in a district of the same Bingol province.

This summer has seen a showdown between Turkish forces and Kurdish rebels, who have ramped up their attacks in recent months, triggering full-fledged military operations in the region.

The PKK, considered a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms in the southeast in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives. (AFP)