The United States is urging Turkey to show restraint after Kurdish rebels attacked its forces on Sunday, killing at least 17 Turkish soldiers and wounding 16 others near Turkey's border with Iraq and Iran, according to Turkey's defense minister. The initial response by Turkish forces was to hit back by killing 32 rebels from the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, in southern Turkey, according to a statement on an official government Web site. Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul said that, in addition to the 17 killed, 10 Turkish soldiers were missing after the ambush in southern Turkey. He denied reports they had been abducted by PKK rebels. Shortly after the attack, a wedding convoy tripped a landmine in Daglica, Turkey, near the ambush site, a Turkish government source said. The attack wounded 12 people and is believed to have been the work of PKK rebels, the source said. After an emergency meeting Sunday of Turkey's military and political leaders, President Abdullah Gul issued a statement saying: "We will continue on our path of determination in fighting the terrorist organization. We respect Iraq's national borders. But [we] will not tolerate those who help and harbor terrorists." Gonul on Sunday assured U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates that Ankara would not carry out an imminent ground incursion, but he did not abandon the possibility of sending Turkish troops into northern Iraq, which Gonul called "a safe haven" for PKK rebels. Gonul and Gates met in Kiev, Ukraine. Gates said: "A major cross-border operation would be contrary to Turkey's interests as well as to our own and that of Iraq."
