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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A rocket attack by Kurdish rebels on a military vehicle in southeast Turkey has killed two soldiers and wounded one other, Turkish officials said Wednesday.
A statement from the governor's office for Hakkari province said the vehicle was attacked as it was leaving a hilltop base near the town of Cukurca, close to the border with Iraq.
The attack came as Turkey intensified cross-border airstrikes against suspected bases belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq, including Qandil mountain — where the group's leadership maintains its headquarters.
Speaking in an election rally in southeastern Sanliurfa province, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey's military continued to strike targets and suggested that the PKK leadership had suffered a blow in Qandil.
"We dealt with a team of leaders in Qandil who were in a meeting," he said.
Earlier, Erdogan said of Qandil: "Our aim is to drain the biggest of terrorist swamps."
In Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said of the airstrikes that "there is no cooperation with the Iraqi government over Qandil." He added that the government had not given its approval to any Turkish military operations on Iraqi territory.
The PKK has waged a more than three-decade-long insurgency in southeastern Turkey. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people. The group is considered a terror organization by Turkey and its allies.
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