Turkish warplanes killed (more then) 23 Kurdish villagers in an air strike near the Iraqi border Thursday when smugglers were apparently mistaken for PKK militants, a pro-Kurdish official said. Provincial officials found 23 bodies at Ortasu village in Sirnak province, said Ertan Eris, a local councillor of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BPD).
Local security sources said the dead were among a group smuggling gas and sugar into Turkey from northern Iraq and may have been mistaken for Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels. Sirnak governor Vahdettin Ozkan said an investigation was under way into what he described as an "incident" in which more than 20 people had been killed. "A crisis centre has been set up in the area and prosecutors and security officers have been sent there," Ozkan said.
AFP - Officials say Turkish air strikes kill 35 Kurds near the Iraqi border (Al Arabiya) - euro news