ANKARA: Kurdish rebels fired rockets at a Turkish naval base Monday killing six troops in the latest assault on a military target since a jailed Kurdish rebel leader signalled an end to peace efforts.
Seven soldiers were wounded in the attack on a military vehicle carrying troops to guard duty in the southern city of Iskenderun, Hatay province, provincial governor Mehmet Celalettin Lekesiz was quoted as saying by Anatolia news agency.
The attack was carried out by members of the "separatist terrorist organization", Lekesiz said, using the official jargon for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leading a 25-year insurgency.
"Security operations were continuing," he said, adding that additional police and troops were deployed after the attack.
Media reports said three of the wounded soldiers were in critical condition in a military hospital in Ankara.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility by the PKK, an outlawed separatist group whose leader Abdullah Ocalan decided to abandon efforts to seek dialogue with the Turkish government.
Five members of Turkey’s security forces were killed on Saturday in a string of attacks that gave a strong sign that Kurdish peace efforts are unraveling.
Army chief General Ilker Basbug cut short a visit to Egypt after the rocket attack and a deadly Israeli operation on an aid convoy headed to the Gaza Strip, which included several Turkish vessels.
Ocalan was jailed for life in 1999 but has retained his influence over the PKK from his prison cell on Imrali island, often issuing guidelines to rebels in statements released through his lawyers.
His calls for dialogue have been rejected by the government, which insists the PKK either lay down its arms or face the army, and he was quoted in a party mouthpiece over the weekend as having given up his pursuit of dialogue.
"Keeping up this process is no longer meaningful and useful. I am quitting after May 31 since I could not find an interlocutor," Ocalan was quoted by the Ozgur Politika newspaper as telling his lawyers during a recent prison visit.
Ocalan however said his decision did not amount to a call for the PKK to intensify its armed campaign.
"This should not be misunderstood. This is not a call for a war," he said, according to Saturday’s Ozgur Politika.
Following a usual winter lull, violence has broken out anew in the southeast. The melting of winter snow has allowed the rebels to move out from their mountain hideouts in Turkey and neighbouring Iraq.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives.
Last year, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government announced it would expand Kurdish freedoms in a bid to peacefully end the conflict.
The initiative however has faltered, amid bitterness over the government’s decision to ban the main Kurdish party and public outrage at bloody PKK attacks.
