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28 March 2024

Turkish troops, planes attack Kurds in Iraq

Published
By AFP

Turkish forces crossed into Iraq Thursday to strike at Kurdish rebels and warplanes pounded their bases in retaliation for the death of 24 soldiers, officials said.

"A large-scale land operation, backed by air strikes, has begun in five separate spots inside Turkey and across the border with 22 battalions," the Turkish military said in a statement posted on its website.

The 22 battalions comprise commando units as well as gendarmerie and special forces, it added, without specifying how many had entered Iraq. Analysts said the total troops deployed would be 10-15,000.

"The air and land operation is under way," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters right after the military annoucement.

"The operation is result-oriented," he said, without elaborating.

In response to the Turkish move, the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said it would "welcome" the ground forces.

"If they want to come, let them come," Dozdar Hammo, a PKK spokesman, told AFP. "We will welcome them here."

Hammo said no Turkish troops had yet crossed the border into northern Iraq, but said Ankara's jets were overhead.

The Turkish air force kept up bombing raids overnight in response to Wednesday's coordinated attacks by PKK guerrillas on military posts in Turkey, which caused the worst loss of life for the army since 1993, local security sources said.

According to press reports, between 200 and 250 Kurdish rebels entrenched in the mountains of northern Iraq, crossed into Turkey late Tuesday to carry out raids which left 24 Turkish soldiers dead and 18 wounded.

Turkish aircraft hit back swiftly while commandos were dispatched in pursuit of the assailants and special units dropped by helicopter a few kilometres (miles) inside Iraqi territory.

A military ceremony was held Thursday morning in Van, a city in eastern Turkey 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of Wednesday's combat zone.

The coffins, draped with the red and white flag of Turkey, were loaded into military aircraft to be taken to their home towns for burial.

President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Erdogan as well as several Cabinet ministers and opposition party leaders attended Thursday the funeral in Ankara of one of the fallen soldiers.

The latest attacks sparked widespread outrage throughout the country.

Thousands of people, many of them students, visited the mausoleum of Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in Ankara and denounced terrorism.

"The martyrs do not die, the nation is not divided," chanted the demonstrators waving Turkish flags.

In Istanbul, some 500 people including members of several trade unions took to street and shouted "Turkey is Turkish and will remain so."

Turkey's parliament began discussing further measures against the PKK in a closed doors session Thursday.

Iraq in an official statement on Thursday pledged to cooperate with Ankara on security issues.

"The Iraqi government condemns this terrorist activity by the PKK, and expresses its sympathy for the families of the Turkish soldiers," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

It continued: "(Iraq) is committed to collaborate with the Turkish government on security issues to prevent a repeat of such actions."

Erdogan also had a telephone conversation with Massoud Barzani, the president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, media reported. He is expected to visit Turkey soon.

Ankara has repeatedly urged Baghdad not to allow its territory to be used as a springboard by the PKK for attacks on Turkey.

Nechirvan Barzani, a former prime minister of the Kurdish regional government, who paid a surprise visit to Ankara, said: "We strongly condemn this attack," after meeting Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu Thursday.

"Such attacks are in the interest of neither the Turks nor the Kurds," he told reporters.

Clashes between the PKK and the army have escalated since the summer.

Five police and four civilians were killed in a landmine explosion in the southeast on Tuesday.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.