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Turkish military: 35 Kurd rebels killed in clashes

by Dave Keating | October 17, 2008 at 03:41 am

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The Turkish military is claiming it has killed 35 Kuridish rebels in an attack on Friday. The rebels were allegedly trying to infiltrate Turkey from a base in Northern Iraq.

Turkey's military intercepted Kurdish rebel radio chatter indicating that up to 35 guerrillas had been killed in recent clashes with troops, officials said Friday.

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Metin Gurak read out a transcript of a conversation that reportedly took place among the rebels Oct. 14, when troops and Cobra helicopters attacked a group of rebels who were allegedly trying to infiltrate Turkey from northern Iraq.

The intercepted conversation indicated that the rebels buried some bodies and took away the rest apparently to disguise their heavy losses. The rebels were also ordered to kill some of their injured fighters, according to the radio communication.

"We have hidden 11 of our friends," Gurak read from the alleged rebel transcript.

Gurak said the military, however, was not able to confirm the rebel deaths in the rugged area.

The Turkish military has long accused the rebels of hiding their dead to appear victorious. There was no immediate rebel statement.

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Amitjha

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 04:07 on October 17th, 2008

Dave Keating, I like this story. It's good stuff.

God knows why there is so much tension in islamic world, is there any kind of research on the behaviour of people from whole middle east.regarding what made them so violent, what kind of emotion drive them to kill any body.

jake Surrette (not verified)

at 12:25 on October 18th, 2008

I can't believe that you would even suggest that the clashes between the Turks and the Kurds have anything to do with Islam. It has everything to do with territory and geopolitics, something that is clearly evident across humanity today and in history. Before you make outrageous comments on the Middle East Amitjha, you may want to look at your own history on the Indian sub-continent. When the British conspired against the Raj's and played them against one another to colonize India, or when Indian's rose in revolt, no one blamed Christianity or Hinduism. Based on your comment, maybe we should.

Although the Middle East is Muslim, not everything that happens there is a result of Islam. Just look at the American occupation of Iraq--perhaps we should blame Christianity for a deadly war based on lies.

Next time, you may want to be a little smarter, accurate and sensitive in your comments about a topic you know very little about.