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Iraq demands halt to Turkish air strikes
in Kurdistan region
17.12.2007
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December
17, 2007
BAGHDAD, -- Iraq's foreign ministry summoned
the Turkish ambassador Sunday to protest Turkish air
strikes inside its territory, saying they would
jeopardise the neighbours' friendly relations.
Turkish warplanes early on Sunday bombed several
villages along the Iraq-Turkey border targeting
Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels,www.ekurd.net
but Baghdad said the
attacks had destroyed civilian infrastructure.
"This attack has destroyed hospitals, schools and
bridges. We demand that Turkish authorities stop
such actions against innocents," deputy foreign
minister Mahmoud al-Hajj Humoud said in a statement.
"This could affect the friendly relations between
the two countries," he said.
"Foreign Undersecretary Muhammad al-Hadj Hammoud
summoned on Sunday the Turkish ambassador in Baghdad
to hand him Iraq's memo of protest against Turkish
aerial bombardment of Iraqi Kurdistan villages in
Sulaimaniyah," read an Iraqi foreign ministry
statement.
Hammoud asked the Turkish ambassador to convey this
message to the Turkish authorities and ask them to
refrain from these military operations that only
kill innocent people and cause panic to inhabitants,
according to the statement.
"These operations could mar friendly relations
between the two neighboring peoples and governments.
The operation left a woman killed, four others
wounded, several families rendered homeless and a
clinic, a school and bridges destroyed," the
statement added.
Turkey said its
warplanes had hit
the "regions of Zap, Hakurk and Avasin as well as
the Qandil mountains" -- known to harbour rear bases
of the Turkey's rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party
inside Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq'.
Local officials said one woman was killed and five
other civilians seriously injured in the air
strikes.
since 1984 when the PKK took up arms for self-rule
in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
The PKK demanded Turkey's recognition of the Kurds'
identity in its constitution and of their language
as a native language along with Turkish in the
country's Kurdish areas,www.ekurd.net
the party also demanded
an end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and
constitution against Kurds, granting them full
political freedoms.
AFP | VOI
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