Turkey air strike kills 23 near Kurdish village

29 December 2011
Last updated at 09:32 GMT

The mayor said all those killed had died of burns

An air strike near a Kurdish village by Turkish warplanes close to the border with Iraq has left at least 23 people dead, officials say.

One report said that smugglers had been spotted by unmanned drones and mistaken for Kurdish rebels.

The attack, on Wednesday night, took place near the village of Uludere in Sirnak province in south-eastern Turkey, according to Dogan news agency.

Local officials said drums of diesel carried by the group had exploded.

The victims had been using mules to cross the border when the incident happened, they said.

The mayor of Uludere was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying there were 30 bodies and all had been burned.

But provincial governor Vahdettin Ozkan said the information he had was that more than 20 had lost their lives.

“A crisis centre is being formed at the scene and prosecutors and security officers were sent there,” he told Anatolia news agency.

Smuggling of fuel and cigarettes is said to be commonplace between villages along the Iraqi border. But rebels from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have crossed the border into Turkey to stage attacks on Turkish forces.

After 24 Turkish soldiers were killed in PKK raids in October, Turkish forces responded with a series of air and ground attacks.