DIYARBAKIR - Turkey's government met Monday to discuss fresh measures to tackle Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) after terrorist organization killed 15 soldiers in the past two days.
The deaths, 13 of them in an ambush Sunday in the southeast Sirnak province bordering Iraq, were the worst losses the army suffered since 1995 in its 23-year fight against the separatist PKK.
One soldier was killed in a clash with the rebels Saturday in Baskale, near the Iranian border, and another early Monday in a remote-controlled landmine explosion near Lice, in Diyarbakir province.
Sunday's attack came after 12 people, mostly civilians but including anti-PKK Kurdish "Village Guard" militiamen, were gunned down in an ambush on a minibus in Sirnak province on September 29. The attack was blamed on PKK terrorists.
The last time the Turkish army lost as many men in such a short time was 12 years ago, when 15 soldiers died in an ambush in remote Semdinli, where the Turkish, Iranian and Iraqi borders converge.
"We are going to evaluate the situation and take the necessary measures," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters ahead of the scheduled government meeting but did not elaborate.
Violence in southeastern Turkey, where the PKK launched an armed insurgency for self-rule in 1984, has cost of more than 37,000 lives so far.
The Turkish army often steps up operations in the mountainous area at the end of summer to prevent PKK terrorists from heading back to their bases in northern Iraq to see out the winter.
In the spring, violence increases as the rebels infiltrate Turkey after the thaw.
On Saturday, the army said it created 27 new temporary security zones, reinforcing an existing plan to deter terrorist movement in the Sirnak, Siirt and Hakkari provinces, all close to the Iraqi border.
The Turkish army has long sought authorization to strike against PKK bases in northern Iraq, but the government has demurred under pressure from the United States, which does not want its Iraqi Kurdish allies forced into confrontation with the Turkish army.
Turkey and Iraq signed a cooperation agreement last month to combat the PKK, but failed to agree on a clause allowing Turkish troops to engage in "hot pursuit" against terrorists fleeing into Iraqi territory, as they did regularly in the 1990s.
Public exasperation with mounting terrorist attacks and the inability to cope with them has widely contributed to rising nationalist sentiment in Turkey, echoed Monday in the mass-selling daily Hurriyet.
"The border (with Iraq) will be crossed and they (the PKK) will be held to account," the daily headlined.
But the Turkish authorities say the increase in PKK violence stems from its dwindling support in the region due to pro-Kurdish reforms undertaken by the government as part of its efforts to join the European Union.
"They show their teeth when they are cornered," commented a military source, speaking on condition of anonymity.