Turkish troops retaliate against PKK

ANKARA, Turkey, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Turkey staged airstrikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq as Turkish leaders asked neighboring Iraq to do more against rebels based there.

Meanwhile, mourners booed at government leaders who attended two funerals Sunday for 15 soldiers killed in a cross-border skirmish with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, The Washington Post reported. Elsewhere, demonstrators waved the Turkish flag in front of parliament and burned effigies of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.

Friday's attack was the deadliest single strike by rebels against Turkey's military this year, the Post said. Turkey said the fighting killed at least 23 Kurdish rebels.

Turkey's leaders stepped up their demands Sunday for Iraq to do more against the PKK, which is based in the region of the Turkey-Iraq border.

"We have no support at all from the northern Iraqi administration," Gen. Hasan Igsiz told reporters in Ankara. "Our expectation is that rebels be acknowledged as a terrorist organization there and that support for the rebels be eliminated."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Monday condemned the killing of 15 Turkish soldiers, urging cooperation between the governments of Turkey and Iraq to "address this threat and to promote peace and stability along their border."