The World - News from July 15, 1988

Turkish troops backed by helicopter gunships clashed with Kurdish guerrillas in southeastern Turkey near the Iraqi border, sources in the region reported. An official Turkish announcement said only that two soldiers died and that operations are continuing. However, sources reached by telephone said about 300 Turkish commandoes and at least two battalions of regular troops are involved in clashes with 100 Kurdish guerrillas near the border town of Sirnak, about 560 miles southeast of Ankara. The guerrillas are believed to be members of the Kurdish Workers Party, a Marxist secessionist group blamed for hundreds of killings and kidnapings.