TURKEY: Turkish warplanes bomb Kurdish guerrilla targets in northern Iraq

Record ID: 338693

  • Title: TURKEY: Turkish warplanes bomb Kurdish guerrilla targets in northern Iraq
  • Date: 26th December 2007
  • Summary: (BN08) CIZRE, TURKEY (DECEMBER 26, 2007) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS PATROLLING ON TURKISH IRAQI BORDER (14 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 10th January 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: International Relations,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA52UR6SOGTS27KW70O1AAC91CA
  • Story Text: The Turkish military has said its offensive against outlawed separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas inside Turkey and across the border in northern Iraq would continue.
    Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish guerrilla targets in northern Iraq on Wednesday (December 26) in their fourth such cross-border raid in five days, Turkey's general staff said in a statement on its website.
    "Fighter jets belonging to the Turkish armed forces successfully hit targets belonging to the terrorist organisation in the early hours of December 26," the General Staff said in a statement, adding eight PKK hideouts were hit in the Zap valley.
    Jabbar Yawar, spokesman for Peshmerga security forces of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, said the strike lasted about an hour in a mountainous border region of Dahuk province but inflicted no casualties.
    Turkey says it has the right to use force to combat separatist rebels who take shelter in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq and mount attacks in which they have killed dozens of Turkish troops in recent months.
    Turkish aircraft also struck targets across northern Iraq on Saturday (December 22), Sunday (December 23) and Tuesday (December 25), the latest salvoes in a campaign that began with a larger bombing raid on Dec. 16. Up to several hundred ground troops as well as long-range artillery have also been involved in the brief cross-border raids.
    Turkey says its strikes are aimed at PKK guerrillas based in northern Iraq. Hundreds of civilians have fled villages in the border area.
    The Iraqi government and U.S. forces say they support Turkey's right to strike back at PKK militants but want any action to be coordinated with them and small in scale to avoid destabilising northern Iraq.
    The United States is providing NATO-member Turkey with intelligence on the PKK in northern Iraq.
    Ankara blames the PKK -- considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union -- for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people since it began an armed struggle for a separate Kurdish homeland in 1984.
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