Clashes between Turkish troops and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels have intensified over the past four months in the mainly Kurd-populated east and south east of Turkey:

- July 14, 2011: Thirteen Turkish soldiers are killed near the southeastern town of Silvan in the worst fighting with Kurdish rebels since 2008.

- August 1: Kurdish separatists kill three Turkish soldiers and injure three other people, including an official, during an ambush near the southeastern town of Baskale.

- August 13: Three soldiers are killed in a PKK ambush on a military patrol in the south-eastern province of Sirnak.

- August 17-22: Turkish air attacks on northern Iraq kill up to 100 Kurdish rebels after a lull of more than a year in response to a PKK attack that killed nine security personnel in southeast Turkey.

- August 25-29: Turkish jets bomb bases in northern Iraq used by the PKK in a fresh campaign that kills as many as 160 rebels.

- September 11: Five people, including three civilians, are killed after Kurdish rebels launch four simultaneous attacks in the Semdinli district of Hakkari, in southeastern Anatolia.

- September 20: A rebel attack on a police academy at Siirt in southeastern Turkey leaves four civilians and one of the assailants dead. On the same day a bomb attack claimed by armed Kurdish group, the Freedom Falcons of Kurdistan (TAK), kills three and injures around 15 in central Ankara.

- September 24: Six soldiers and three rebels die during an attack on a police station in the village of Belenoluk in Siirt province.

- October 18: A landmine explosion kills five police officers and four civilians, including a two-year-old girl, on a rural road in a village near the Guroymak district of southeastern Bitlis province. The authorities blame the PKK.

- October 18-19: Rebels kill at least 24 soldiers in simultaneous attacks in the province of Hakkari. Turkey hits back with cross-border air strikes on rebel bases and sends troops into neighbouring Iraq.

- October 20: Turkish forces cross into Iraq and act at the Turkey-Iraq border to strike at Kurdish rebels and warplanes pounded their bases.