Turkish planes bomb targets in N.Iraq.

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Turkish planes bomb targets in N.Iraq-Turkish media | Reuters

ANKARA, May 20 (Reuters)

Turkish military aircraft bombed Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq in an operation said be the largest in one-and-half years, Turkish broadcasters and an army source said on Thursday.

The raid by some 20 planes hit nearly 50 targets in northern Iraq's Zab valley area, the NTV television channel said. The state Anatolian news agency also reported an aerial operation against the militants in northern Iraq.

The Anatolian said "a terrorist group" was spotted approaching the Turkish border and the aircraft attacked the group in an operation lasting for an hour.

An official at Turkey's army headquarters in Ankara declined to comment: "We have nothing to say on this at the moment."

A senior army source in the southeast said a second aerial bombardment was continuing against the PKK targets in the evening hours.

The source said Thursday's raid was the largest over the last one-and-half years and targeted the PKK underground shelters in addition to rebel groups in movement. There was no information on possible PKK casualties.

On May 8, Turkish army forces pursued Kurdish guerrillas into northern Iraq and struck suspected targets with helicopter gunships and drones, killing at least five rebels.

Clashes in Turkey's southeast typically become more frequent in spring and summer due to more favourable weather conditions for the guerrillas.

The Iraqi government has protested against Turkish land incursions aimed at rooting out the PKK. In February 2008, the military staged a ground incursion with 10,000 troops. It also regularly bombards suspected PKK targets from the air.

The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 in a conflict that has claimed 40,000 lives.

The rebels, who are mainly based in Iraqi Kurdistan, say they are fighting for greater political rights for Turkey's estimated 15 million Kurds. The United States and the European Union both label the PKK a terrorist organisation. (Reporting by Selcuk Gokoluk; Editing by Matthew Jones)

 

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Iraqi Kurds accuse Turkey and Iran of attacks | Reuters


(Reuters) - Iraqi Kurds on Friday condemned air strikes and shellfire by Turkey and Iran on Turkish-Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq as violations of Iraqi sovereignty.

World | Turkey

Iranian forces shelled border regions and Turkish war planes caused "huge" casualties, according to a statement from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which runs northern Iraq autonomously from Baghdad.

Turkish military sources said Thursday's attacks on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), an outlawed Turkish-Kurdish group largely based in north Iraq, were the biggest such operation in over a year and had killed four guerrillas and wounded more.

"The presidency of the Iraq Kurdistan region condemns these attacks on the border regions, and at the same time considers this a violation and aggression on the sovereignty of the Iraqi state and demands its immediate cessation," the statement said.

KRG President Massoud Barzani had been expected to visit Ankara as relations between Turkey and Iraqi Kurds improve, but Thursday's operations could revive tension between the two.

The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 to fight for an ethnic homeland for Kurds in southeast Turkey and more than 40,000 people have died in the conflict.

The rebels, who the PKK says number 7,000, have scaled back their demands and now want greater cultural and political rights for Turkey's estimated 14 million ethnic Kurds.

Turkey has called on Barzani to do more to combat the PKK, but Iraqi Kurds are reluctant to risk destabilizing northern Iraq, which has escaped much of the violence seen in the rest of the country since the 2003 U.S. invasion.

Turkish military sources said Thursday's attacks had been aimed at underground shelters and rebels moving on foot in the remote, mountainous part of northern Iraq occupied by the PKK, straddling Iraq's borders with Iran and Turkey.

Turkey and Iran have in recent years shared intelligence and coordinated attacks on the PKK and its Iranian offshoot, the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK).

(Additional reporting by Shamal Aqrawi in Arbil, Iraq; Writing by Ayla Jean Yackley; editing by Tim Pearce)