8 soldiers killed in PKK bomb attack in southeast Turkey

A military captain was killed in Sirnak province late Friday as insurgents attacked a army outpost with rockets and machine weapons.

Turkey is meanwhile still without a permanent government after inconclusive June 7 elections and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the country was now “swiftly” heading to snap polls. “Both parties have to return to the table of negotiations, because one year of negotiations is better than an hour of war”, he said. “There are various dynamics that could get out of control”, he added.

Turkey has been on high alert since launching a two-pronged air campaign against the Islamic State group in Syria and PKK bases in northern Iraq last month. The PKK responded with multiple attacks against the army and police.

Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters attacked Turkish military forces today in a roadside bomb attack in the nation’s southeast, killing eight soldiers.

A 20-year-old policeman in the Nusaybin district of Mardin province was shot dead by suspected PKK militants while standing outside his father’s house late on Sunday night, the local governor’s office said.

But in a move analysts saw as aimed at reclaiming support for the AKP, Erdogan used the agreement to unleash Turkish airstrikes against PKK strongholds inside Iraq.

“In the absence of a parallel cross border operation that would involve ground troops, air strikes are effective only to an extent”. They’ve included removing restrictions on Kurdish language television broadcasts, abolishing an emergency law that many Kurds decried as draconian and increasing government investments in Kurdish areas.

The wounded were taken to hospital for treatment.

Tens of thousands of people have lost their lives in the conflict.

Although neither side has officially declared an end to an ongoing peace process, there are concerns that much of the violence stems from Kurdish youth groups and factions that are acting independently.

“Negotiations will be harder, not easier”.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the EU.