Agence France-Presse,
ANKARA: The Turkish army confirmed Monday that eight soldiers were missing after bloody clashes Sunday with Kurdish rebels near the Iraqi border.
“Despite all searches, contact has not been established with eight staff with whom contact was lost,” the general staff said in a statement.
The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said it had captured eight soldiers after an ambush Sunday on a military unit near the village of Daglica on the Iraqi border, which left 12 soldiers dead.
The separatist group named seven of them Monday on the web site of a news agency considered to be its mouthpiece. It said the identity of the eighth soldier would be revealed later.
The general staff said sporadic fighting was continuing in the region.
The number of killed PKK militants rose to 34 from the previous official toll of 32, it said, without mentioning any new army casualties.
Turkish leaders were meeting Monday to weigh a response to the PKK attack, which came only days after the parliament authorised the government to order military action if necessary into northern Iraq, where the PKK takes refuge.
