Report: Turkish military hunts down Kurdish rebels along Iraqi border in new offensive

Report: Turkish troops hunt down Kurdish rebels

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s state-run news agency says elite commando units have rappelled down from helicopters and poured out of mechanized infantry units to surround Kurdish rebels in a major operation along the Iraqi border.

The Anatolia agency says the offensive comes as the country’s military and civilian leaders met Monday to discuss ways to respond to a surge in Kurdish rebel attacks that left 12 Turkish soldiers dead over the weekend.

Gen. Ilker Basbug, head of the military, does not rule out a new cross-border offensive against Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq. He says the military has been using drones, bought from Israel, over northern Iraq to monitor rebel positions over the past 10 days.

Basbug says “our duty is to find and eliminate terrorists wherever they are.”