Kurdish rebels killed at least 12 Turkish soldiers and wounded 16 others in an ambush yesterday, prompting Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to call crisis talks to consider a military strike against rebel bases in Iraq.

The attack, one of the worst in more than a decade by rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), came four days after Turkey's parliament approved a motion to allow troops to enter northern Iraq to fight guerrillas hiding there.

"We are very angry... Our parliament has granted us the authority to act and within this framework we will do whatever has to be done," Erdogan said.

He said military and government officials would meet at 1700 GMT under President Abdullah Gul to decide the response.

Gul said: "Iraq continues to harbor terrorists and Turkey has the right to eliminate the terrorists. Parliament has given the authorization for this."

In Iraq, Kurdish rebels said they killed at least 16 Turkish soldiers and had taken "several" hostage in the clashes.

Turkey's military general staff said 12 soldiers and 32 rebels were killed in the clashes. Turkey shelled areas inside Iraq yesterday morning but no casualties were reported.

In a separate incident yesterday, a landmine killed one civilian and wounded at least 13 more in a minibus traveling near to where the soldiers were killed.

The United States, Turkey's NATO ally, and Iraq have urged Ankara to refrain from military action, fearing this could destabilize the most peaceful part of Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein.

Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani said his autonomous region would defend itself if Turkish troops invaded.

"We are not going to be caught up in the PKK and Turkish war, but if the Kurdistan region is targeted, then we are going to defend our citizens," Barzani told reporters after meeting Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who is also a Kurd.

Turkey has deployed as many as 100,000 troops along the border to try to stop the rebels crossing into Turkey.

With the death toll among Turkish security forces around 40 for the past month alone, Erdogan's government is under heavy domestic pressure to pursue the PKK into northern Iraq.

"A cross-border operation must now definitely be carried out," said Devlet Bahceli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), echoing the reaction of opposition parties.

Gul said he would hold talks on the crisis with the leaders of Turkey's political parties today.

Erdogan has appeared reluctant to launch an incursion into Iraq, and Western diplomats said Turkey was concerned about the security, diplomatic and economic risks of such a move, but the latest rebel attacks may have made a military strike inevitable.

"We cannot expect Turkey to remain silent in the face of attacks like these," Murat Yetkin, a commentator for the liberal Radikal daily told NTV television.

"This attack, coming on a day when Turkey votes in a referendum, is a very clear provocation. It shows the PKK is not interested in democratic initiatives," Yetkin said.

Agencies

(China Daily 10/22/2007 page9)