Turkish army strikes Kurdish PKK rebel targets in Iraqi Kurdistan
ANKARA, — The Turkish air force has struck Kurdish rebel hideouts in neighbouring Kurdistan region of Iraq after an attack inside Turkey left two soldiers dead, the military said late Friday.
“After detecting that anti-aircraft fire was opened on (Turkish) helicopters from various positions across the border, the air force fired on those positions” for an hour Friday afternoon, the army said in an online statement.
“It has been observed that those positions were destroyed,” it said.
The operation against the Turkey separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has rear bases in Iraq, began after a group of about 25 rebels attacked a commando unit near the border village of Daglica Friday morning, killing two soldiers.
Turkish army strikes Kurdish PKK rebel targets in Iraqi Kurdistan region
The statement confirmed that at least five PKK militants were killed in the ensuing clashes.
“Operations in the region are continuing and it is believed that the losses of the terrorists are higher,” it said.
The Turkish army has staged a series of air raids against PKK bases in Kurdistan in Iraq’s north since December 2007, often with the help of US intelligence, and in February 2008 carried out a week-long ground incursion.
In October 2007, Daglica, nestled among rugged mountains, was the scene of one of the bloodiest PKK attacks in recent years in which rebels sneaking in from Iraq ambushed a patrol, killing 12 soldiers and wounding 17 others.
The attack turned up pressure on the government for cross-border military action against the PKK, paving the way for subsequent parliamentary authorisation to that effect, which expires in October.
The PKK is considered a ‘terrorist’ organization by Ankara, U.S., the PKK continues to be on the blacklist list in EU despite court ruling which overturned a decision to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its political wing on the European Union’s terror list.
Since 1984 the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey [Turkey-Kurdistan] which has claimed around 45,000 lives of Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK guerrillas.
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, the party also demanded an end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and constitution against Kurds, ranting them full political freedoms.
A large Turkey’s Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels.
The arrival of spring usually brings a resurgence of violence as the rebels move out from their mountain hideouts in Turkey and neighbouring Iraq when the snow melts.
9 May 2010
http://ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2010/5/turkey2646.htm
