Turkey launches offensive against Kurdish rebels

Turkish soldiers, air force bombers and helicopter gunships conducted a major offensive in southeastern Turkey on Friday after Kurdish legislators declared autonomy in the region and more than a dozen soldiers were killed there by Kurdish rebels.

After Friday prayers in this mostly Muslim nation, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said violence by the Kurdish rebels in the Diyarbakir area will achieve nothing. "What they did is never going to drag us to the table," Erdogan said of the Kurdish guerrillas. "If they want to make peace, there is only one thing to do: the terrorist organization must lay down arms," he said in nationally televised comments in Istanbul. (AP)