Turkish ground troops enter Iraq seeking to capture Kurdish rebels

An army convoy was bombed Sunday, killing 16 soldiers and on Tuesday, 14 police officers lost their lives in an attack on their minibus.

The leader of the pro-Kurdish opposition HDP has accused the ruling AKP of orchestrating nationalist attacks and pushing Turkey towards civil war.

The Turkish military has responded with air strikes and a rare ground incursion into northern Iraq to hunt down the rebels.

Escalating violence between Kurdish forces and the government of Turkey could be very destabilizing for the region.

For more than a month, Turkey has been in the midst of a deadly battle with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or the PKK, with hundreds, including many members of security forces, killed in clashes and attacks in the southeast of the country.

Earlier, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham strongly denounced a recent attack by Kurdish militants on Turkish police officers.

Demirtas did however level harsh criticism against the government during a news conference in the southeastern city, claiming that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and interim Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu are responsible for the bloodshed.

Khalil Mohamed, governor of the region’s Zakho district, said in a statement that 115 of the district’s 184 villages were “no longer accessible” due to the establishment of PKK camps.

Pro-Kurdish politicians say 21 civilians have been killed and a humanitarian crisis has unfolded since authorities imposed the curfew to combat PKK fighters.

Turkey has also carried out airstrikes against PKK bases in northern Iraq, though it is unclear how many people have been killed there.

Erdogan has suggested that the immunity from prosecution of its lawmakers be lifted.

Kurdish rebels were suspected of detonating a bomb in the eastern province of Igdir as a police vehicle escorting a group of customs officials to a border gate was passing by, the Anadolu Agency reported. Ankara has launched a military campaign against the PKK in northern Iraq.

However, fighting between Turkish and PKK forces resumed following a July 20 bombing in the Turkish-Syrian border town of Suruc in which 32 people were killed and 104 others wounded.

Like Turkey, the United States and European Union consider the PKK – which launched a separatist insurgency three decades ago – a terrorist organisation.

The PKK, known for sometimes exaggerating the death tolls of its attacks, said 31 Turkish soldiers had been killed in Sunday’s gun and bomb attack in Dağlıca.