TURKEY: Kurdish rebel attack

The Kurdish conflict in Turkey continues to increase the sharpness. In a new rebel attack on the border with Iraq around 30 people have been killed. Ten of the victims were ten soldiers and police officers, Turkish media reported, citing authorities. The security forces had shot and killed during a battle lasting several hours about 20 rebels. Some 100 fighters of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK had in the night to Monday simultaneously attacked four institutions of the armed forces in the mountain town Beytussebap. The town lies about 14 kilometers from the Iraqi border. The Reuters news agency also reported, citing Turkish security circles, PKK fighters had hijacked the local chairman of the ruling party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In a separate incident, Turkish police stopped at a checkpoint near the border with Syria, a suspected suicide bomber. During an exchange of fire was the culprit then detonated an explosive device and killed, the Turkish authorities. Five police officers were injured. The fighting between the Turkish army and the PKK have increased in recent months. Some Turkish government officials see a connection with the civil war in Syria. They complain that the local president Bashar al-Assad and Kurdish groups in Syria to support the PKK.Assad denies. The rebel organization but it is obviously succeeded in exploiting the power vacuum in eastern Syria and infiltrate into the region.

45,000 dead since 1984

The PKK is considered by Turkey, the EU and the U.S. as a terrorist organization. She fights since the early 1980s for independence or greater autonomy for Kurdish areas in Turkey. According to Army figures in the conflict so far more than 45,000 people were killed. Not militant Kurdish organizations complain systematic discrimination of their community by the Turkish state. Turkish governments have in recent years repeatedly announced reforms and declared their intention to end the conflict with the rights of the Kurdish minority. The plans did not come forward but