Turkish planes hit PKK targets in N. Iraq

11/10/2008| IslamWeb

Turkish war planes and artillery have pounded bases of the Kurdish separatist group PKK in a big operation in northern Iraq, the military said on Saturday.

 

Turkish TV meanwhile reported that Ankara was considering talking to the Iraqi Kurdish government about acting against the PKK, which launches attacks inside Turkey from its bases inside northern Iraq.

 

Turkey has previously refused to sit at the negotiating table with the Iraqi Kurds and blamed them for not doing enough to drive out the PKK.

 

The military has stepped up its operations against the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) in southeast Turkey and across the border in northern Iraq after a series of deadly attacks by the separatists on Turkish soldiers.

 

An army statement said Turkish planes and artillery attacked 31 PKK targets in northern Iraq's Hakurk region at about midnight on Friday. The operation was a success, it said.

 

A PKK spokesman said the PKK suffered no casualties.

 

Ahmed Danees, spokesman for the PKK in Iraq, said that new shelling had taken place in mountainous areas inside Iraq for about an hour on Saturday.

 

Jabbar Yawar, spokesman for the Kurdish Peshmerga security forces, confirmed Turkish shelling took place overnight.

 

NTV broadcaster said Turkish authorities wanted to seek the help of Iraqi Kurdish leaders against the PKK. They would consider inviting Nechirvan Barzani, who heads the Iraqi Kurdish regional government, to Turkey for talks.

 

Turkey's parliament on Wednesday extended for another year a mandate for the military to launch operations against PKK rebels based in northern Iraq.

 

More than 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK launched its armed campaign for an ethnic Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.

 

PHOTO CAPTION

 

A Turkish soldier on patrol near the border with Iraq in February 2008.

 

Al-Jazeera