28-03-2024 10:24 AM Jerusalem Timing

New Attack Kills Turkish Troops, Erdogan Set to Call Snap Poll for Nov.

New Attack Kills Turkish Troops, Erdogan Set to Call Snap Poll for Nov.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was on Monday expected to call snap polls likely to be held on November 1 after efforts to form a coalition government failed.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was on Monday expected to call snap polls likely to be held on November 1 after efforts to form a coalition government failed.

Erdogan is due to meet with parliament speaker Ismet Yilmaz at 1415 GMT a day after the deadline for forming a new government expired.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip ErdoganAfter the president calls a re-run of elections, he is expected to give a mandate to Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to form an interim "election government" to take the country to the November polls.

Davutoglu's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its overall majority in the 550-seat parliament in the June 7 elections for the first time since it came to power in 2002, forcing the party to seek a coalition partner.

But the AKP's talks with opposition parties to form a coalition government after the inconclusive elections produced no results.

Erdogan, a co-founder of the AKP, wants the party to regain an overall majority to form a government alone.

Meanwhile on Monday, two Turkish troops died and a policeman was killed in new attacks blamed on Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the country's southeast, the army and officials said.

The two soldiers died in a roadside bombing by the PKK early Monday in the Semdinli region of the southeastern Hakkari province close to the borders with Iran and Iraq, the army said in a statement.

Five other soldiers were wounded. Helicopters and drones were dispatched to "neutralize the terrorists" behind the attack, it added.

Turkish soldierA 20-year-old policeman in the Nusaybin district of Mardin province was shot dead by suspected PKK militants while standing outside his father's house late on Sunday night, the local governor's office said.

Ankara is currently waging a two-pronged offensive against Takfiri group, ISIL (so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Levant), in Syria, and against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels in northern Iraq and southeast Turkey.

Earlier, Turkey has been reluctant to step up fight against ISIL. Mediareports repeatedly said that Ankara has been aiding ISIL terrorists against the Kurdish fighters and against the Syrian government.

However, deadly attacks blamed on ISIL recently rocked Turkey, prompting Ankara to allegedly step the fight against the Takfri group.

But, so far, the air strikes have overwhelmingly concentrated on the separatist Kurdish rebels.