DIYARBAKIR – Turkish troops have killed 16 Kurdish guerrillas in an operation in southeastern Turkey targeting militants who launched a bomb attack on a military convoy that killed five soldiers, the local governor's office said on Thursday. The army sent in troop reinforcements and helicopter gunships after Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels detonated remote-controlled bombs in the attack on the army convoy in Hakkari's Semdinli district on Wednesday. Five soldiers were killed and seven wounded in that attack, the Hakkari governor's office said in a statement. In a sign of Ankara's growing concern over the mounting violence in the mainly Kurdish region, the commander of the military's land forces arrived in Hakkari on Thursday. He sought to reassure mainstream public opinion, which favors a hardline response to militant attacks. — Reuters
