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Turkish aircraft attack Kurdish PKK
positions in Iraqi Kurdistan
23.12.2007
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December
23, 2007
ANKARA, -- Turkey's military said it attacked
Turkish Kurdish PKK separatists in Kurdistan region
'northern Iraq' Saturday for the third time in less
than a week, bombing and shelling positions and
warning more will follow.
"Turkish aircraft attacked between 1:35 pm and 2:00
pm (1125-1200 GMT) major positions of the terrorist
organisation" PKK, before Turkish artillery shelled
the area for 15 minutes, the military said in a
statement on its website.
It gave no details on targets, saying more
information would be given next week and that it
would carry out more operations despite harsh winter
conditions in the mountainous region.
The Turkish television channel NTV said the raids
were in the Amadiyah area of Kurdistan 'northern
Iraq'. |
Turkish fighter jets were involved in the airstrikes on
Iraqi Kurdistan |
"It will become well understood how effective the
operations against the terrorist operations are,"
the military's statement said. The PKK "no longer
has a chance of success" against the Turkish army.
Actions over recent weeks had left "hundreds of
terrorists" dead, it added.
In northern Iraq, Jabbar Yawar, spokesman for the
Iraqi Kurdistan Peshmerga security force, said
Turkish warplanes had hit isolated Kurdish villages.
"In the afternoon Turkish warplanes entered northern
Iraqi airspace in an area called Al-Amadiyah. Later
at around 4:00 pm they bombed Iraqi Kurdish
villages. We do not know the extent of damage. But
these areas are largely deserted and are along the
border with Turkey," Yawar told AFP.
The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a
'terrorist' group by Turkey, US and EU.
Since 1984 the PKK
took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey. 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.
Turkey has been stepping up pressure since its
parliament approved in October cross-border raids on
PKK bases, with Ankara saying the Iraqi government
and its US backers were not doing enough to halt PKK
attacks.
Asked for a reaction, State Department spokeswoman
Nicole Thompson said in Washington: "The US does
view the PKK as a terrorist group and is against any
acts of violence against Turkey or Iraq. It will
continue to work with the governments of Turkey and
Iraq on how they can work together to deal with the
PKK."
The new raid follows
air attacks on December 16
on the Qandil mountains near the border with Iran
where Ankara says some 3,500 PKK rebels are holed
up, using the area as a springboard for attacks on
Turkey.
On Tuesday, Turkish troops penetrated into northern
Iraq from the southeast Turkish province of Hakkari,
the army said. Iraqi officials said about
500 Turkish troops
took part in the ground operation.
Ankara has accused Iraqi Kurds, who run the
autonomous Kurdistan region in 'northern Iraq', of
tolerating and even supporting the PKK. Kurdish
authorities in Kurdistan region strongly reject the
claim.
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.
Turkey, which has the second largest army in the
NATO military alliance after the US with 515,000
troops, has moved around 100,000 soldiers up to its
380-kilometre (230-mile) border with Iraqi
Kurdistan.
The United States fears that Turkey could launch a
major cross-border operation and destabilise the
relatively peaceful northern part of Iraq called
Kurdistan.
After a flurry of diplomatic activity, Iraq has
promised to rein in the PKK and in November US
President George W. Bush said Washington would
provide Ankara with information on rebel movements
from its satellites.
The US administration said Wednesday that it had
been informed about the December 16 raids in
advance.
Turkish chief of staff General Yasar Buyukanit said
earlier that the United States approved the December
16 air raids by providing "intelligence" and opening
Iraqi airspace.
On Tuesday the president of Iraq's Kurdistan region,
Massud Barzani,
refused to meet
visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in
Baghdad in protest at US support for Turkey's
strikes, a top Kurdish official said.
Ankara has denied that civilians were hit on
December 16, blaming reports of villages being
bombed and hospitals and schools destroyed on PKK
sympathisers among Iraqi officials seeking to
mislead the international community.
The UN refugee agency has said that around
1,800 people fled
their homes in Sulaimaniyah and Erbil provinces in
Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq' following the
Turkish attacks.
AFP
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