ANKARA, Turkey, June 3 (UPI) -- Ankara is investigating a Kurdish militant raid on a naval base and the Israeli attack on an aid flotilla simultaneously, interior officials said.
Militants with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, stormed a Turkish naval base Monday in the port city of Iskenderun, killing six Turkish soldiers in the attack. On the same day, nine Turkish nationals were killed when Israeli forces raided a vessel said to be delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Turkish Interior Minister Besir Atalay said both issues were at the top of the national agenda during high-level talks Thursday, Turkish daily newspaper Today's Zaman reports.
"The developments concerning the humanitarian aid flotilla en route to Gaza and the vicious attack in Iskenderun are being investigated together," he said.
Turkish relations with Israel were scarred by the flotilla raid. The nine bodies were returned to Ankara from Israel aboard a Turkish plane Wednesday.
Atalay said Ankara was working on sweeping plans in the wake of the PKK attacks as officials scrambled to handle recent events that he described as "delicate."
"I don't want to say both are related," he cautioned. "Of course, such investigations require attention, and we need to refrain from careless statements."
