Istanbul (CNN) -- Turkey's long-simmering war with a Kurdish insurgency has escalated over the last year, reaching death tolls unseen in more than a decade, a new report focusing on the conflict says. "Turkey's Kurdish conflict is becoming more violent, with more than 700 dead in fourteen months, the highest casualties in thirteen years," concluded the International Crisis Group, a conflict resolution organization that has extensively researched Turkey's war with the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. "We're seeing the longest pitched battles between the army and the PKK, we're seeing a wide-spread campaign of kidnapping, suicide bombings and terrorist attacks by the PKK. They're very much on the offensive and unfortunately this is matched by much harder line rhetoric on both sides," added Hugh Pope, the chief author of the International Crisis Group report, in an interview with CNN.
@highlight
NEW: At least 10 Turkish soldiers were killed Tuesday in a suspected PKK attack
@highlight
12 killed in PKK ambushes last weekend; Turkey says it's killed hundreds from PKK recently
@highlight
International Crisis Group says casualties are the highest in 13 years
@highlight
The Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, launched insurgency in the 1980s in response to state bias
In fact, in recent weeks, Turkey's fiery prime minister has publicly urged the @placeholder media not to report on the growing number of Turkish casualties in the conflict, drawing criticism from media freedoms groups.