TURKISH WARPLANES ATTACK SUSPECTED REBEL POSITIONS ON IRAQ BORDER
Canadian Press
Oct 10 2007
SIRNAK, Turkey – Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships attacked
suspected positions of Kurdish rebels near Iraq on Wednesday and police
detained 20 Kurds with suspected rebel links at a border crossing.
The military offensive, which reportedly included shelling of guerrilla
hideouts in northern Iraq, was a possible prelude to a cross-border
operation that would likely raise tensions with United States,
a key ally.
U.S. officials are already preoccupied with efforts to stabilize
areas of Iraq outside the predominantly Kurdish northern region,
and oppose Turkish intervention in that relatively peaceful area.
Turkey and the United States are NATO allies, but ties have also been
tense over a U.S. congressional bill that would label as genocide
the mass killings of Armenians by Turks around the time of the First
World War.
Turkish troops were blocking rebel escape routes into Iraq while F-16
and F-14 warplanes and Cobra helicopters dropped bombs on possible
hideouts, Dogan news agency reported.
The military also dispatched tanks to the region to support the
operation against the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ party, or PKK.
Dogan said the military had installed night vision cameras at strategic
points to spot any rebels fleeing at night. The agency said there was
fog Wednesday morning in the Gabar and Cudi regions of Sirnak province,
near the Iraq border, forcing warplanes to fly low.
The military activity followed attacks by PKK rebels that had killed
15 soldiers since Sunday and prompted Turkey’s government to push
for a possible cross-border offensive against separatist bases in Iraq.
Turkey’s Kurdish rebels have been fighting for autonomy in southeast
Turkey since 1984 in a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands
of lives.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters that
preparations for a parliamentary authorization for such a mission
were under way, but did not say when the motion would reach Parliament.
The measure was unlikely to get to Parliament before the end of
a four-day religious holiday on Sunday, an official of Erdogan’s
Justice and Development party said.
An opposition nationalist party called on the government on Wednesday
to swiftly take the motion to Parliament and said it would back it.
If parliament approves, the military could choose to launch an
operation immediately or wait to see if the United States and its
allies, jolted by the Turkish action, decide to crack down on the
rebels.
Authorities on Wednesday said they detained 20 Kurds, including eight
women, at the Habur border gate with Iraq, the governor’s office for
Sirnak said. Two of the 20 were carrying false ID cards.
The office said the suspects had attended a PKK meeting and that those
attending were told to prepare for violence against government offices.
State-run Anatolia news agency said the suspects – most of them
university students – were detained as they entered Turkey. They
were being questioned by prosecutors in Silopi, in Sirnak province,
the agency said.
The rebels often cross back and forth from bases in Iraq, using remote,
mountain passes that are difficult to monitor.
Hurriyet newspaper reported Wednesday that Turkish troops were pursuing
a group of about 80 rebels on Mount Gabar, in Sirnak, and that escape
routes were being bombed by helicopter gunships while transport
helicopters were airlifting special commando units to strategic points.
Turkish troops were also shelling suspected PKK camps in the regions
of Kanimasa, Nazdur and Sinath, in northern Iraq, from positions
in Turkey’s Hakkari province, Hurriyet said. Tanks were positioned
near Silopi.
At least one artillery unit was seen positioned on the Turkish side
of the border, across from the Iraqi Kurdish town of Zakho, with guns
facing toward Iraq.
Turkey conducted two dozen large-scale incursions into Iraq between
the late 1980s and 1997. The last such operation, in 1997, involved
tens of thousands of troops and government-paid village guards.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
