Kurdish rebels ambushed a military unit near Turkey's

SIRNAK, Turkey - Kurdish rebels ambushed a military unit near Turkey's border with Iraq early Sunday, killing 12 soldiers giving way on the Turkish government to stage attacks against guerrilla camps in Iraq.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan won the referendum at a polling station in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, Oct. 21, 2007. Turkey's leaders hold an emergency meeting on Sunday to decide what steps to take against PKK- Kurdish rebels, following an ambush that killed at least 12 soldiers.

Iraq's president, ordered Kurdish guerrillas to lay down their weapons or leave, but Turkey's deputy prime minister said words were no longer enough: "We are expecting concrete steps from them."

Soldiers died when rebels blew up a bridge as a 12-vehicle military convoy was crossing it, less than three miles from the Iraq border, news channel television said. Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said the military had circled a group of rebels, killed 23 of them and were shelling their positions.

"Our anger, our hatred is great," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on national television. He said the government would take "an approach that is calm, far from agitation and based on common sense."

The handing over of PKK leaders to Turkey is a dream that will never be realised," Talabani, himself a Kurd, told journalists.

"PKK's leaders are in Kurdistan's rugged mountains. The Turkish military with its mightiness could not annihilate them or arrest them, so how could we arrest them and hand them to Turkey?"

However, Talabani and Iraqi Kurdish president Massud Barzani hold most sway over Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters best suited for any operations Iraq could launch.

"We have appealed to the PKK and PJAK (an offshoot of the PKK) to stop fighting and to transform themselves from military organisations into civilian and political ones," Talabani said.

"But if they insist on continuing the fight, they should leave Kurdistan and not create problems here. They should go back to their countries and do whatever they want."

A statement from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office condemned what it described as a "terrorist action" carried out by the PKK against Turkish soldiers, after a meeting of Iraq's security committee.

Turkey's parliament on Wednesday approved a motion authorising military strikes into Iraq for a one-year period against PKK rebels using northern Iraq as a springboard for cross-border attacks.

Iraqi lawmakers overwhelmingly condemned the Turkish move on Sunday but urged their own government to do more to rid the country of the rebels.

"The parliament calls on PKK fighters to leave Iraqi territories and asks the Iraqi government to take the required measures to stop PKK activities being launched from Iraqi territories," a motion said.

In Ankara, Erdogan said he, President Abdullah Gul and top ministers and military leaders would meet later Sunday to decide on what action to take following the latest clashes.

The Turkish army has already sent additional troops to the region following the attack in which PKK rebels allegedly ambushed an infantry platoon.