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Turkish troops enter Iraqi Kurdistan
region
18.12.2007
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500
Turkish troops cross into Iraqi Kurdistan
December
18, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', --
Turkish troops entered northern Iraq early on
Tuesday to flush out separatist Kurdish rebels,
Jabbar Yawar, spokesman for the Iraqi Kurdistan
peshmerga security force, told AFP.
The operation is the first reported ground incursion
by the Turkish military inside Iraq since tension
between Ankara and Baghdad erupted over the Kurdish
rebel issue in October.
Other sources reported that a group of 500 Turkish
troops crossed into Kurdistan region territory in
'northern Iraq' overnight and moved 2-3 km deeper
into Iraq on Tuesday morning, a senior Iraqi
military source said.
"The area they entered is a deserted area and there
is no Iraqi force or peshmerga deployed there. We do
not know how many Turkish troops" crossed the border
into Iraq, Yawar said.
A local Kurdish channel called Kurdistan, belonging
to Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani's party,www.ekurd.net
said that the Turkish
soldiers had penetrated several kilometres (miles)
inside Iraqi Kurdistan from an area called Seed Qan.
It said the troops had reached the villages of Khaya
Rash, Bunwaq, Janarouq and Kelirosh.
"The troops are now based there," the channel said.
Turkish warplanes bombed
Kurdish villages in Kurdistan region in northern
Iraq over the weekend. Iraq complained that at least
one civilian woman was killed in the weekend
strikes, and has said it wants any future military
action to be coordinated with Baghdad.
Residents said schools and bridges were destroyed in
the foothills of the Qandil mountains along the
border where the bombing took place.
Turkish military officials in Ankara contacted by
AFP could not confirm that troops had crossed the
border on Tuesday.
The mass-circulation Hurriyet newspaper suggested on
its website that the troops could be commando units
aiming to block the escape routes of PKK militants
fleeing their camps after Sunday's air raids.
The European Union and the United Nations have
expressed concern over Turkish military action
inside Iraq.
On Sunday, Ankara's most senior general, Yasar
Buyukanit, said Turkey had received tacit US consent
for the operation after Washington provided
intelligence and opening up northern Iraqi airspace.
Tension between Iraq and Turkey has been high since
October 21 when the Turkey's rebel Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) ambushed a Turkish military
patrol, killing 12 soldiers.
Iraqi Kurdistan politician says, Turkey is using
Turkey's Kurdish separatist PKK rebel group as an
excuse to invade Kurdistan region 'Iraq' to prevent
the establishment of Kurdistan state in the Kurdish
autonomous region in 'northern Iraq',www.ekurd.net
Turkey fears this could
fan separatism among its own large Kurdish
population in southeast Turkey.
Since then Ankara has been threatening to launch a
military incursion into Iraq to flush out PKK
fighters hiding out in the mountainous north.
But lobbying by the United States and appeals by
Baghdad stopped them from staging a full-fledged
incursion.
Parliament in Ankara has also given its formal
approval for the Turkish military to cross the
border into Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq'.
The PKK has been fighting for self-rule in
southeastern Turkey since 1984, and more than 37,000
people have been killed on both sides since the
conflict broke out. A large Turkey's Kurdish community
openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in 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.
The (PKK) KONGRA-GEL released an
official declaration
reiterating their desire for negotiations with the
Turkish government.
AFP | Agencies
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