Ankara: Turkish commandos, backed by helicopters, deployed along the Iraqi border on Monday after Kurdish guerrillas killed 11 soldiers at the weekend in one of the deadliest attacks for years in their separatist war.
In Ankara, President Abdullah Gul chaired an emergency security meeting, attended by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and military leaders, as pressure mounted for the government to rein in violence in the mainly Kurdish southeast.
State news agency Anatolian said elite troops rappelled down from helicopters and poured out of mechanised infantry units to surround Kurdish rebels in an operation along the Iraqi border. Kurdish rebels have bases in northern Iraq.
Helicopter gunships bombed suspected positions of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) guerrilla group in the mountains in the provinces of Hakkari and Sirnak, security sources said.
More than 40,000 people, mainly Kurds, have been killed since the PKK took up arms in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the southeast.
"A review of intelligence and the structure of personnel in the region was discussed," a statement from Gul's office said after the security summit. Erdogan has granted more political and cultural rights to minority Kurds in an effort to end separatist violence.
But his "Kurdish initiative" floundered after it was poorly received in the rest of the country and following a decision by the Constitutional Court late last year to ban the largest Kurdish political party in parliament for its links to the PKK.
The presidential statement said: "It was stressed that coordinating anti-terrorism activities with neighbouring and relevant countries should be made more effective".
Intelligence-sharing with the US, which brands the PKK a terrorist group, has helped Turkish bombing raids on rebel targets in northern Iraq, both in the past and since Saturday's attack. "The PKK is a common enemy of Turkey and of the United States," said US Ambassador to Turkey James Jeffrey in a statement. "There is no change to the level of our intelligence-sharing with Turkey regarding PKK activities in northern Iraq."
