One Turkish police, one civilian killed in attack blamed on PKK

Turkey says its attacks are “in retaliation” for the killings of two Turkish police officers last week, for which the PKK claimed responsibility.

Mustafa Buyuk, governor for Adana province said PKK militants opened fire at the police station in the town Pozanti, touching off a clash that left two policemen and two rebels dead.

Some of the attackers who were able to escape the police have started searching the militants.

Since the past few days, the military has been carrying out daily air raids on the group’s camps in northern Iraq.

Erdogan and the AKP worry that those advances will embolden Turkey’s own 14 million Kurdish minority and rekindle a three-decade insurgency by the PKK, deemed a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and Europe. Turkish soldiers have also been attacked and killed. Davutoglu’s Justice and Development lost its parliamentary majority in June and has until August 24 to form a coalition government, otherwise new elections will be called.

While defending Turkey publicly, the U.S. has been urging Turkey to be “judicious” in its retaliation against the PKK, senior U.S. officials said.

“His brother was trained in the mountains… he would run to the mountains himself if he could find the opportunity”, Erdogan said. It also accused Iraq of failing to keep to a pledge to prevent PKK attacks on Turkey from its territory.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said Turkey’s onslaught against the PKK will continue until its fighters lay down arms, despite calls from Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish political party for the resumption of peace efforts — a plea the party’s co-chairman renewed on Thursday.

At least twelve members of the security forces have been killed over the past week by suspected Kurdish militants. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since then. The current violence has ripped apart a ceasefire declared in 2013.