PKK militants kill 13 Turkish soldiers

A fierce battle between Turkey's army and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants in the southeast of the country has left 13 Turkish soldiers dead. Six Turkish soldiers were also wounded, two of them seriously, in the clashes on Thursday near the town of Silvan, AFP quoted local security sources as saying. There were no immediate reports on the number of Kurdish militants possibly killed in the clashes. The Thursday skirmish marks the deadliest fighting with the PKK forces in months. The incident reportedly prompted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to skip his engagements in Istanbul to convene an emergency meeting with the Turkey's top security officials. PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, launches its attacks from Iraq's Qandil Mountains in the areas controlled by Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government. The group took up arms against Ankara in 1984 and is deemed accountable for the death of at least 45,000 people in its struggle for a Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey. In March, Turkey's Today's Zaman newspaper said a classified report revealed the PKK has been forging new ties with Israel. The document presented at Turkey's National Security Council meeting in late February also said the Kurdish militants are receiving training from Mossad agents, the paper said.