Turkish forces kill 15 Kurdish militants

Kurdish guerrillas killed 26 Turkish soldiers in an attack on military posts in southeastern Turkey early on Wednesday, security sources told Reuters.           

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants opened fire with automatic rifles on a military post at Cukurca in Hakkari  province, on the border with Iraq, the sources said. Media reports said several places had come under attack.      

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has cancelled a planned trip to Kazakhstan while Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called off a planned trip to Serbia after Kurdish separatist rebels killed 26 Turkish soldiers in one of the deadliest attacks on Turkish security forces in years, sources said.       
     
Turkish President Abdullah Gul said revenge would be "very great" for attacks carried out by suspected Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkey on Wednesday which killed 26 Turkish soldiers and wounded at least 16.                 

"No one should forget this, those that inflict this pain on us will endure far greater pain. Those that think they will weaken our state with these attacks or think they will bring our state into line, they will see that the revenge for these attacks will be very great and they will endure it many times over," Gul told reporters in Istanbul.           

Security officials in the region told Reuters that Turkish troops killed 15 Kurdish militants in clashes in southeast Turkey near the Iraqi border on Wednesday after attacks by the rebels which killed 26 soldiers.            

At least 100 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants were believed to have taken part in the attacks, which targeted seven locations, security sources said.  

-Reuters