Turkey launches assault on Kurdish rebels in Iraq
Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul attends the funeral ceremony for major Yavuz Basayar in Ankara on August 19, 2011. Kurdish rebels killed eight Turkish soldiers, including Basayar, and a village guard on August 17 in an ambush in the southeast of the country. Since the attack Turkish jets bombed 88 targets on bases of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq.
Turkish warplanes and artillery struck Kurdish rebel positions across the border in Iraq on Thursday, according to the Voice of America.
It was the second straight night that Turkey's military attacked leadership targets of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which is based in northern Iraq.
The PKK, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and the U.S., is believed to be behind a spate of attacks on Turkish soldiers in the past month.
The latest strikes, carried out late Thursday, again targeted areas in Iraq's Kandil region near the Iranian border. PKK forces use the mountains of northern Iraq as a sanctuary to launch attacks in southeastern Turkey.
Ankara launched the air raids after PKK rebels ambushed a military convoy in Turkey, killing at least eight Turkish soldiers near the border with Iraq.
The conflict between Turkey and the PKK separatists, which began in 1984, has left an estimated 40,000 people dead.
And violence between the two sides, including among ethnic Kurds living in Turkey, appears to be getting worse.
As we reported earlier this week:
On city streets across the country’s southeast, young Kurds clash regularly with the police, the force of their stones returned by water cannons. Fighting between the army and the outlawed PKK, meanwhile, continues to escalate — more than 100 lives have already been lost in clashes this year.
On Friday, Iraqi government officials denounced Turkey's violation of its airspace and national sovereignty – the first such cross-border attack this year.
"Our position is clear: we reject violations and overstepping of borders. This issue cannot be resolved through military action," Iraq's Deputy Foreign Minister Labeed Abbawi told Reuters. "Iraq should have been informed about this to find other ways to resolve this escalation."
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