PKK Attacks Turkish Naval Base

[Saipul]

PKK bomb kills 4 Turkish soldiers

Four Turkish soldiers have been killed in a roadside bomb explosion in the eastern parts of the country, amid a surge in militant attacks against Turkish military.

The blast, blamed on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), occurred on Saturday near the town of Dogubayazit in the Agri province, AFP reported, citing Turkey's state-run Anatolia News Agency.

Denounced as terrorist by much of the international community, the PKK has been fighting Turkey in its quest for an independent Kurdish state in the southeast.

Some 45,000 people are estimated to have died since 1984, when the group launched its armed offensives.

In June, the militants called off a unilateral ceasefire only to resume their armed assaults, with their spokesman Ahmed Denis warning that "we will take our operations to all Turkish cities."

PKK militants launch their operations against Turkey from Iraqi Kurdistan's Qandil Mountains, where Israel and Israeli firms operate.

The International Strategic Research Organization, a Turkish think tank, warned last month that the Israeli military's retirees as well as members of the Israeli spy agency, Mossad, had been sighted providing training to PKK gunmen in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Speaking to Press TV from Istanbul on Saturday, political analyst Yavuz Selim Kurt said Israel fosters the destabilizing acts of terror against Turkey as a means of silencing Ankara's opposition to the policies adopted by Tel Aviv.

According to Kurt, the militants intensified their operations five hours before the May 31 attack by Israeli commandos on the Gaza-bound aid convoy, Freedom Flotilla, which left nine Turkish activists dead.

"Israel is trying to destabilize Turkey and [is] backing this terrorist organization… Everywhere, they are supporting this terrorist organization in order to destabilize the country and to force them not to attack Israel's policies," Kurt said.

HN/MMN