It was the largest number killed in a firefight with the
PKK, the Kurdistan Workers Party, since last summer.
The PKK called off a six-month long cease-fire in February
raising fears that violence would pick up before a national election in Turkey
on June 12.
Military operations were continuing in the area near the
site of the clash by the town of Hassa in Hatay province, said the military
officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Syria and Turkey went to the brink of war in 1998 over
Syrian support for the PKK, but political and economic ties between Ankara and
Damascus have flourished since then. Last year, Syrian security forces rounded
up 400 suspected PKK.
Turkey is closely monitoring unrest that recently flared in
Syria, and has encouraged Syrian President Bashar Assad to make political and
economic reforms.
Separately, near Turkey’s border with Iraq, witnesses
reported seeing troops and equipment mobilized in Hakkari and Sirnak provinces.
Hundreds of troops are moving to the region in convoys amid
the spring thaw, when fighting in the mountainous region traditionally picks
up.
Helicopter gun ships have pummeled the border area within
Turkey for two days, security sources said.
Soldiers also patrolled remote areas further west in
Diyarbakir, Tunceli and Bingol provinces in anticipation of clashes with the
PKK after the group ended its one-sided truce.
The PKK took up arms in 1984 in a bid to carve out an ethnic
homeland in southeastern Turkey, but has scaled back demands to greater
political autonomy and cultural rights for Turkey’s estimated 15 million Kurds.
