(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-10-21 19:52

ANKARA, Turkey - A bomb on a road in southeast Turkey on Sunday injured 14 people inside a minibus and Kurdish rebels were suspected to have detonated it, CNN-Turk television reported.

Hasan Akkoc holds up a phototgraph of his 20-year-old grandson Kadir Yalcin, a Turkish soldier killed by Kurdish rebels near Turkey-Iraq border, during his funeral in Ankara in this June 9, 2007 file photo. [File]

The attack occurred on a road near the village of Daglica, on the border with Iraq, where at least a dozen soldiers were killed earlier Sunday in a separate attack blamed on the rebels of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

The attack came four days after Turkey's Parliament passed a motion allowing its military to launch an offensive into neighboring northern Iraq to stamp out the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, hiding there. Turkish leaders have said the motion did not mean that Turkey would immediately order a cross-border offensive

But Sunday's death toll raises the number of soldiers killed in PKK attacks in the past two weeks to around 30. And although it was not immediately clear exactly where the rebels in the latest attack were based, the clash is likely to increase calls for the military to stage an incursion into Iraq.

The US and Iraq oppose any unilateral action by Turkey, fearing it could destabilize northern Iraq, the most stable part of the country.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was cutting short a visit to Istanbul to return to the capital, Ankara, CNN-Turk television reported. He urged calm following the attacks and said Turkey's leaders would hold an emergency anti-terrorism meeting later in the day.

Labor Minister Faruk Celik said "These latest developments, I believe, will make us implement sharper measures."

The rebels attacked the military unit, based near the Turkish town of Yuksekova, in Hakkari province, with heavy machinery, Anatolia said. Some 15 soldiers were also injured, it said.

NTV television said the fighting occurred some three miles from the border with Iraq.

Turkey has been pressing the United States and the Iraqi government to crack down on the rebels who have found safe havens in the remote, mountainous areas of northern Iraq. On Saturday, Erdogan said Turkey expected the United States to take action against the PKK but would take its own measures if it saw no results in the fight.

The US lists the PKK as a terrorist organization and has repeatedly condemned its attacks in Turkey. However, Washington has called on the Turkish government to work with the Iraqis.

Rebels have been fighting for autonomy for Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast. More than 30,000 people have died in the conflict that began in 1984.

Turkish leaders have repeatedly said a cross-border military operation would target only the PKK camps in northern Iraq.