Turkey said on Monday eight of its soldiers were missing a day after clashes with Kurdish rebels near the Iraqi border, in which at least 12 soldiers were killed.The General Staff also said 34 rebels from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were killed in the clashes, two more than reported earlier.
The pro-PKK Firat news agency said eight Turkish soldiers had been captured and gave the names of seven men. Turkey has denied some of its soldiers were captured in the fighting.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday he expected the United States to take “swift” steps against the PKK, many based in northern Iraq.
Turkey has deployed as many as 100,000 troops, backed by tanks, F-16 fighter jets and attack helicopters along its border with Iraq in anticipation of a possible incursion.
Asked about any pending attack, Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul said on Sunday: “Not urgently. They are planning a cross-border (incursion)...We’d like to do these things with the Americans.”
The US and Iraq have called on Turkey to refrain from a military push into the largely autonomous Kurdish region, one of the few relatively stable parts of the Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003.
Turkey estimates 3,000 rebels from the PKK are based across the border and a series of recent attacks on Turkish forces has put intense pressure on Erdogan to act.
Turkey believes the US forces could, if they wanted, capture PKK leaders in the Qandil mountains, shut down their camps and cut off supply routes and logistics support.
But Washington is hesitant as such moves could destabilise Iraq’s Kurdish region and hurt the regional authority there if it looked as if it were siding with Turkey against fellow Kurds.
Turkish media said more than 200 rebels were involved in the clashes on the Turkish side of the border over the weekend.
US President George W Bush condemned Sunday’s attacks.
“Attacks from Iraqi territory need to be dealt with swiftly by the Iraqi government and Kurdish Regional authorities,” White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
