Protesters, police clash in Yksekova in Turkey’s southeast

Air strike kills 35 villagers in an 'operational mistake', The rulings party's spokesman admits that the military's 'operational mistake' led to the deaths of 35 villagers in a southeastern province.five villagers were killed and another was injured in a Turkish military air raid along the Iraqi border on the night of Dec. 28 in what a senior ruling party member declared "an operational fault." The assault, which utilized F-16s and unmanned aerial vehicles, was conducted near the Ortasu village of Uludere in the southeastern province of Şırnak, Doğan news agency reported yesterday. The raid was "an operational mistake" and the ensuing investigation will determine those responsible, the deputy chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Hüseyin Çelik, told reporters yesterday in Ankara after a meeting of the party management. "According to initial information, those [killed] people were not terrorists but smugglers. The operation was carried out on the presumption that they were PKK [outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party] terrorists. It was not intentional. Unfortunately, it was an operational mistake," Çelik said, adding that the ultimate conclusion would be reached once the investigation was complete. The cross-border air raid was launched to target the PKK following intelligence that terrorist groups had gathered in preparation for attacks on military outposts and bases at the border, the General Staff said in a written statement posted on its website <b>…</b>