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Police officer and civilian killed in PKK assault in Diyarbakir

It also accused Iraq of failing to keep to a pledge to prevent PKK attacks on Turkey from its territory.

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According to an AFP tally, at least 13 members of the security forces have been killed in attacks blamed on the PKK in 10 days of violence.

The killings are the latest in a spike in unrest as Turkey carries out a bombing campaign against targets of the Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Syria and PKK militants in northern Iraq.

Erdogan initiated negotiations in 2012 to try to end the PKK insurgency, largely fought in the predominantly Kurdish southeast and which has killed 40,000 people since 1984.

Demirtas, whose party has been a facilitator in negotiations, said Davutoglu’s calls to the PKK to lay down its arms and leave the country were “one-sided and impossible to achieve”.

“If needed, we are ready to sacrifice our sons and ourselves for this homeland”, he told a conference in Ankara. He said the rebels were armed with automatic rifles and hand grenades.

He said they should be charged with seeking to influence the judiciary with comments that encouraged criminal proceedings against the HDP and its leaders.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – Kurdish rebels raided a Turkish police station and fired on railway workers in two separate attacks that left five dead, officials said Friday, amid renewed conflict between the security forces and insurgents that has wrecked a fragile peace process. The current violence has ripped apart a ceasefire declared in 2013.

A leader of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party has said that the country should “immediately” return to the “solution process” amid worsening violence between Kurdish militants and the security forces. Davutoglu’s Justice and Development lost its parliamentary majority in June and has until August 24 to form a coalition government, otherwise new elections will be called.

“His brother was trained in the mountains… he would run to the mountains himself if he could find the opportunity”, Erdogan said.

Turkey is now set to open its Incirlik base outside Adana to US warplanes to bomb IS in a long-awaited move.

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“Turkey’s operations do not aim at taking measures against Islamic State“.

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