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Turkish military shells Iraqi Kurdistan
region
12.1.2008
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January 12, 2008
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan Region 'Iraq', -- The
Turkish army on Friday pounded areas across the
border in Kurdistan region 'northern' Iraq with
artillery fire, continuing its assaults on suspected
Turkey's PKK rebel positions, a Kurdistan border
guard official said.
Major General Jabar Yawar, spokesman for the
Peshmerga security forces in Iraq's northern
autonomous Kurdistan area, said Turkish forces had
shelled two areas in Duhok province for two hours.
Earlier,www.ekurd.net
Iraqi Kurdish television
said the Turkish military had bombed northern Iraq.
"From seven until 10 Friday morning there was
artillery shelling on the border near Amadiyah" in
the Dohuk region, Yawar said.
"The local residents heard this bombing. We
contacted the border guards who confirmed the attack
but had no details of place."
A senior Iraqi border guards officer, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, said there were no
casualties in the shelling, which took place between
7 a.m. (4 a.m. British time) and 9 a.m..
Turkish warplanes repeatedly struck Turkey's PKK
targets in the mountainous of Iraqi Kurdistan in
December 2007 and troops also made small -scale
cross-border raids. Turkey has also massed up to
100,000 troops on the border with Iraqi Kurdistan
region.
In October the Ankara government secured a one-year
parliamentary authorisation for cross-border
military action to hunt down Turkey's Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) rebels.
The Turkish army has confirmed three bombing raids
on PKK positions by Turkish aircraft since December
16, which it claims have killed more than 160
rebels.
Iraqi Kurds have reported two other air strikes this
month that Turkey has not confirmed.
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', Turkey fears this could
fan separatism among its own large Kurdish
population in southeast Turkey.
More than 37,000 people have been killed since 1984
when 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.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara, US
and EU.
AFP | Reuters
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