Turkey (AFP / Reuters) - The Kurdish fighters killed 13 Turkish soldiers while seven militants were killed on Thursday in the worst clashes since the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) ended a ceasefire in February.
Turkey's armed forces chief of staff said in a statement that the grenades thrown by the insurgents rekindle the fire in forested areas where clashes took place and 13 soldiers were killed in the blaze.
The statement said seven more soldiers were wounded in the fighting.
Pro-Kurdish news agency, Firat, denied that version with the report quoted a witness that a Turkish warplanes have targeted militants in air strike that also
kill the soldiers positioned nearby. But denial does not explain the death toll.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan met with leaders of the army and intelligence as well as the interior minister and head of the paramilitary in Ankara.
"Turkey will overcome terror and the forces behind without sacrificing democracy, justice and brotherhood," Erdogan said in a statement.
Security forces, backed by warplanes, launched a pursuit against the rebels in the mountainous province of Diyarbakir, and the army chief of staff has gone to the area.
PKK moved into what they refer to as an "active defense", where its members to defend themselves if threatened, after a six-month truce ended.
Last week, the leader of the PKK, the imprisoned Abdullah Ocalan, send a message through his lawyers that he had agreed with the Turkish officials to establish a "peace council" - aimed at ending the 27-year separatist conflict.
Ocalan said that the council should be formed within a month, although it is unclear what form that will be taken.
The proposal comes a month after Erdogan's AK Party won the election for a third term in power and two months after Ocalan threatened "war" unless the government entering into negotiations.
Boycott
The representatives of the pro-Kurdish parties that are considered as close to
PKK failed to reach an agreement with the AK Party to end their boycott of parliament, said representatives of both parties to
reporters after the second day of talks on Thursday.
The boycott by the representatives of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) was prompted by a court ruling banning a candidate elected who was jailed for mendaparkan their seats.
Reacting to news of the clashes, the BDP leader Selahattin Demirtas said: "We are very sad. Because the friends pay the price for this political kebuntuhan. Turkish Parliament should take the initiative to bring peace."
In Diyarbakir on Thursday, Democratic People's Congress, which together organizations, non-Kurdish government, met and declared "democratic autonomy", although it is unclear what action may be required.
Erdogan's government won a confidence vote on Wednesday to
push forward a plan to rewrite the constitution, but the Kurdish boycott remains a hurdle to replace the constitution made after the military coup of 1980.
More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict, despite the violence faded after Ocalan was arrested in 1999.
Regardless of the attitude of "active defense" has been the flow of militant activity in recent weeks.
PKK rebels kidnapped two men after stopping their vehicles in mountainous Tunceli province in eastern Turkey on Wednesday, security sources said.
They are the laborers who work on military construction, the TV report said.
A few days earlier, militants kidnapped three people, two of them soldiers, in Diyarbakir, a large jita Kurdish southeast.
Security forces are conducting a massive operation to find them.
Separately, security sources said 14 PKK members surrendered to Turkish forces in Silopi, near the border with northern Iraq on Wednesday, allegedly because of persecution in the guerrilla camps.
There is no statement about the incident from the PKK.