|
Turkey shells Iraqi Kurdistan border 21.10.2007 |
|
|
|
October
21, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', -- The
Turkish military shelled the Iraqi Kurdistan border
region early on Sunday, but there were no
casualties, a Kurdish military official said.
While Turkish shelling of the border area is not
unusual, tension has been growing since Wednesday
when Turkey's parliament authorised troops to
conduct cross-border raids into Kurdistan 'northern
Iraq' to hunt Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) rebels
using the region as a base.
The president of Iraqi autonomous region of
Kurdistan Massoud Barzani said dialogue was the best
option to solve the PKK problem and the Kurds in
Iraq would not take sides in any battle.
But he added Kurdistan would defend itself if
Turkish forces launched an incursion and attacked
Kurdish targets.
"We are not going to be caught up in the PKK and
Turkish war, but if Kurdistan region is targeted,
then we are going to defend our citizens," Barzani
told reporters after meeting Iraqi President Jalal
Talabani, also a Kurd.
Talabani said the Turkish shelling was an
"unjustified escalation" adding that Iraqis do not
want war. He said Iraq will discuss the tension with
Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan when he arrives
in Baghdad this week.
Turkey's decision to hunt down PKK rebels in
Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' has alarmed Washington as
it fears any incursion would bring chaos to the
region, threaten oil supplies and hurt U.S. efforts
to quell violence elsewhere in Iraq.
"This morning at 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) they shelled
about 11 areas along the borders. There were no
casualties," the Kurdish official in Iraq told
Reuters.
Turkish security sources said earlier Kurdish rebels
killed at least 13 Turkish soldiers in an ambush
near the Iraqi border on Sunday. It was not
immediately clear whether the shelling and the
attack were linked.
The deputy governor of the Kurdish province of
Duhok, Gorkeis Sulaiman, said the Turkish shelling
targeted areas close to the towns of Zakhu and
Amadiya, destroying a bridge linking two villages
near Amadiya.
Residents in Zakhu gave a similar version of events.
"Today at dawn the Turkish artillery shelling
started in villages around Zakhu. We were sleeping
and we all jumped from our beds. We thought that war
had started," said a man in his 50s in Zakhu. "My
children started screaming."
"I called relatives in the surrounding villages and
they told us that heavy Turkish shelling was taking
place. Orchards had been burned and a bridge
destroyed," said the man, who declined to give his
name.
Iraq repeatedly has called for Turkey to avoid any
military incursion and stressed further dialogue is
the way to resolve the problem of Kurdish
separatists based in Iraq.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said last
week he wanted members of the PKK fighting for a
Kurdish homeland to leave northern Iraq as soon as
possible.
Reuters
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 