Rebel Kurds ambush military convoy; Turks retaliate by shelling border area

? Kurdish rebels ambushed a Turkish military convoy on Sunday less than three miles from the Iraqi border, killing 12 soldiers in the face of growing threats by Turkey to cross the rugged frontier and root out the guerrillas.

Turkey shelled the border region in response to the attack, and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani – himself a Kurd – ordered the rebels to lay down their arms or leave Iraq. Turkey dismissed his call, saying the time had come for action.

Despite the harsher rhetoric, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday it appears Turkey’s military is not on the verge of invading Iraq’s most stable region in pursuit of the rebels – an incursion strongly opposed by the United States and Iraq.

Gates told reporters that in a meeting with Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul, he advised against a major cross-border incursion despite the continuing provocations.

“I’m heartened that he seems to be implying a reluctance on their part to act unilaterally, and I think that’s a good thing,” Gates said. “I didn’t have the impression that anything was imminent.”

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a phone conversation Sunday night that Turkey expected “speedy steps from U.S.” in cracking down on Kurdish rebels, and that Rice expressed sympathy and asked “for a few days” from him.

Turkey’s Parliament last week authorized the government to deploy troops across the border, and the military confirmed that soldiers were chasing the rebels and pounding 63 suspected positions with artillery. Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek would not say however, whether some of those positions were on Iraqi soil.

“Whatever is necessary in this struggle is being done and will be done,” Cicek said.

The troops, backed by helicopter gunships, killed 32 rebels on Sunday, Cicek said.

The rebel group, Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK, claimed later that its guerrillas had also captured a “number” of Turkish soldiers. Eight soldiers were missing, according to private NTV television.

Cicek refused comment on the report, saying “the clashes are still under way.”

“Every kind of attack will be avenged many times over,” Cicek said.

The soldiers died when an estimated 200 guerrillas – the largest single group that attacked a Turkish unit in years – reportedly attacked an infantry company near the village of Daglica, less than three miles from the border.

The attack occurred just after midnight during a military offensive against rebels in Hakkari province, where the borders of Turkey, Iraq and Iran meet. Hakkari is east of Sirnak province, another area of conflict between the PKK and the Turkish military.

According to CNN-Turk, the rebels blew up a bridge as a 12-vehicle military convoy was crossing. In a separate attack on Sunday, 17 people were injured when a bomb exploded as a minibus – part of a wedding convoy – passed nearby, the local governor’s office said.

Iraq reported Turkish shelling toward Kurdish villages in the border area in northern Iraq but no casualties were reported in the artillery bombardment.

“Our anger, our hatred is great,” Erdogan said.

Sunday’s attack raised the death toll of soldiers in PKK attacks in the past two weeks to around 30.

“A cross-border offensive must certainly be carried out and their blood should not be left on the ground,” said Devlet Bahceli, leader of the Nationalist Action Party.

Previous offensives by Turkey in Iraq have blunted rebel strength but failed to eradicate the group.