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Iraq's Kurd villagers see no hope after
air strikes
31.12.2007
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December
31, 2007
SANKASAR, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', --
Since Turkish warplanes turned her village home into
a heap of rubble last week, mother of eight Aziya
Rasheed says she has lost all hope for the future.
Air strikes on mountain villages around the town of
Sankasar in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq' on Dec.
16 destroyed much of Rasheed's modest home as the
family slept, injuring her 16-year-old daughter so
severely that she had to have her leg amputated
above the knee.
"We lost everything, even my daughter's leg. Isn't
this terrorism from Turkey?" she said angrily.
"I have no hope of going back to my demolished home,
all my livestock are dead and the future of my
children is uncertain.
How are they going to study here when I'm living in
a small room like this?"
The family will have to survive the rest of the
bitter winter in a small mud-brick room belonging to
relatives in Sankasar, about 160 km (100 miles)
north of the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah,
Kurdistan's cultural capital.
The fate of Iraqi civilians caught up in the fight
between Turkish forces and Turkey's Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas could effect the
delicate balance of security in Kurdistan 'northern
Iraq'.
Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops on the Iraqi
Kurdistan border and waged a campaign of low-level
cross-border strikes on PKK militants for several
months, accusing PKK fighters based in Iraq of
carrying out deadly attacks in Turkey.
The campaign intensified this month, with air and
artillery strikes and small-scale cross-border raids
by ground forces.
U.S. and Iraqi authorities describe the PKK as
"terrorists" and say they support Turkey's right to
strike back. But they have also expressed concern
that civilian casualties could destabilise northern
Iraq. Washington has had to tread a delicate path
between the interests of its two close allies.
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.
Over 37,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when 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 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.
WHERE WERE PKK FIGHTERS?
Turkish forces say they killed more than 150 PKK
fighters in the Dec. 16 air strike, their biggest
yet.
The mayor of Sankasar, Abdullah Ibrahim, said there
were no PKK fighters in the area and the strikes had
forced 370 Iraqi Kurdish families to flee their
homes in surrounding villages.
"The constant presence of Turkish planes over the
villages has deterred everyone from returning
because they fear another attack," he said.
Reuters was unable to verify whether PKK fighters
were in the area or how much damage was caused to
PKK targets.
Iraq protested after the Dec. 16 strike that at
least one civilian, a woman, had been killed. The
Turkish military denied any civilian targets were
hit.
The Iraqi government said on Sunday it would pay 1
million dinars (about $700) to each family displaced
by the strikes.
Mohammed Hasan, a 40-year-old father of six whose
house was destroyed by Turkish bombing, says he is
afraid to return to his village because Turkish
planes still fly overhead.
"The bombing began in the middle of the night, I
quickly got everyone out of the house and soon
after, I looked back at my house and saw it
burning," he said, breathing deeply.
"It was destined for us Kurds to face all these
tragedies. First Saddam Hussein kept us on the run
and now Turkey and Iran take it in turns to bomb
us," he added.
Aid from charities and donations from businessmen in
Sulaimaniyah have provided most needy families with
basic food like rice, sugar and tea, and blankets
were distributed to help them survive the cold weeks
ahead.
Shlier Khudhur, a 30-year-old woman now living with
her brother, sobs as she recalls the night she lost
her home.
"I was wounded when the house fell on top of us
during the air strikes. We have lost everything we
ever owned," she said.
"I wish I had died rather than live through this."
(Writing by Mussab Al-Khairalla; editing by Tim
Pearce)
Reuters | Agencies
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