Turkish Troops Kill 12 Kurdish Militants

[Socialist Christian]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&ncid=586&e=8&u=/nm/20031120/wl_nm/turkey_clash_dc

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TUNCELI, Turkey (Reuters) - The Turkish military killed 12 Kurdish militants during fighting in the southeastern province of Bingol late on Wednesday, government and security officials said.



Security officials said there were no initial reports of Turkish military casualties in a battle in the mountainous and remote region some 800 km (500 miles) from Istanbul.


Turkey has fought a decades-long battle against Kurdish rebels at the cost of more than 30,000 lives, most of them Kurds. Sporadic fighting continues despite the 1999 arrest and imprisonment of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.


Two men from Bingol, believed to be Islamist militants, took part in suicide attacks on two Istanbul synagogues at the weekend which killed 25 people, Turkish officials have said.