Turkish soldiers killed in clashes between army and PKK fighters

But it has launched more than 400 strikes against the PKK in and outside Turkey, he said. The government considers the PKK a terrorist organization just like the Islamic State, as do various Western countries.

“We’ve not yet seen any movements on the ground that would indicate they are following through with it”, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss battlefield issues. Also that month, Turkey said ISIS militants attacked Turkish troops at the Turkey-Syria border, killing a soldier.

The United States and European Union called on Turkey last week to show restraint in its bombing of the Kurds, saying the country had a right to defend itself but that the response should be “proportionate”.

Now, the US is reportedly embracing an all-out partnership with the YPG to make up for the failures of its $500 million Syrian train-and-equip program – a move that is sure to anger Ankara and inflame tensions even further.

The soldiers were killed when an explosive device laid by PKK militants on a road in the Karliova district of eastern Bingol province was detonated, the army said in a statement.

The outlawed Marxist Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) – which the government has on occasion linked to the PKK – claimed another attack in Istanbul, a shooting on the US consulate, which caused no casualties.

The official said: “The PYD is not on our target list”. He emphasised the danger still posed by the jihadis who are being fought by PKK rebels and the Peshmerga, supported by airstrikes from the US-led coalition that have been hitting Isis targets for a year this weekend.

The Kurdish leader predicted that the HDP would gain more seats next time, despite Erdogan’s hopes to push its vote below the 10 percent threshold needed for parliamentary representation.

The deployment to Turkey comes after Ankara agreed to host combat forces at the US-run base.

Erdogan said that the over-two-week air campaign against the PKK had already inflicted “serious losses” on the group.

He also laid down conditions for new negotiations with Turkey for peace. The search for a peaceful solution to the conflict, undertaken by the government three years ago, has been suspended amid growing nationalist backlash. But in June, the AKP lost its outright majority, mainly because of the rise of the left-wing, Kurd-sympathising HDP party, which became the third-largest group in parliament.

The main condition Turkey had followed then, and is still following, was the creation, with the help of the U.S., of an ISIS- and Kurdish-free zone – a way to end the territorial connection between Turkish and Syrian Kurds – in Syria on the Turkish border.

Washington and Ankara differ about whether the Americans are allowed to continue to support the Kurds once they start their bombing raids from Turkish soil.