by Mahmoud Abu Ghosh
Turkish forces killed 13 Kurdish rebels in occupied northern Kurdistan overnight, marking an escalation in violence at a time when winter weather generally limits clashes.
Resistance fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) attacked some 10 different Turkish military targets at roughly 2:30am in Hakkari province, Turkish sources said.
One soldier and four rebels were killed in the fighting as occupation forces began combing the area for Kurdish rebels.
Separately, nine PKK fighters died in clashes with Turkish troops in a mountainous region of Bingol province after occupation forces discovered a winter shelter used by the rebels.
Turkish sources claim that most of the Kurdish guerrillas killed themselves by detonating hand grenades rather than being captured.
Three of the rebels were capture alive, two of them wounded, the sources said.
More than 45,000 people, mostly Kurds, have been killed since the PKK began its armed struggle for freedom from Turkish rule in 1984.
Turkey, the United States and the European Union all classify the PKK as a terrorist organization.
