Europe and the United States on Tuesday urged Turkey to show a "proportionate response" in the face of daily attacks by Kurdish militants amid growing concern over the scale of Ankara's air campaign against the rebels. Two more Turkish soldiers were killed in the latest assault blamed on Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, as Ankara pressed on with a relentless air campaign against hideouts in northern Iraq.
Ankara is waging a two-pronged cross-border "anti-terror" bombing campaign against Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria and PKK rebels in northern Iraq. But so far the raids have overwhelmingly targeted the Kurdish rebels. Official media in Turkey have said at least 260 PKK members have been killed so far, in hundreds of sorties targeted against the group's shelters, weapons stores and caves.
But concern over possible civilian casualties grew when pro-Kurdish media at the weekend said Turkey killed eight civilians by bombing a village. The army denied the claims. The European Union's enlargement commissioner, Johannes Hahn, expressed "deep concern" at the impact on efforts to resolve the decades-long conflict with Turkey's Kurdish minority. Turkey has a right "to react to any form of terrorism," Hahn said in a statement. Both the US and the EU list the PKK as a terror group. But he added: "The response, however, must be proportionate, targeted and by no means endanger the democratic political dialogue," he said.