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Turkey Hits Kurds in Iraq for Second Day
Turkey Hits Kurds in Iraq for Second Day - WSJ.com
ISTANBULTurkish warplanes on Thursday bombed Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq for the second successive night, as Turkey's military chiefs vowed to continue operations until the guerilla group is "rendered ineffective."
Turkish F-16s struck military encampments of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, late Thursday inside Iraqi territory near the border with Iran, a PKK spokesman said.
Shortly before the strikes, Turkish security forces were attacked in the eastern province of Siirt, according to Turkey's state-run Anatolian news agency. No group immediately claimed responsibility for that attack.
In a statement earlier Thursday, Turkey's military chiefs said fighter jets had hit more than 200 suspected PKK targets across the mountainous region near the border with Turkey late Wednesday, as well as targets on Mt. Qandil along the Iraq-Iran border, where the leadership of the organization has had its base for more than a decade.
Turkish analysts said the apparent severity of Wednesday's strikes suggested they caused serious damage to rebel infrastructure in northern Iraq. The attacks are Turkey's first cross-border aerial incursions since summer 2010, when warplanes carried out retaliatory air strikes on suspected rebel hideouts.
In Iraq, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's spokesman said the government "denounces any attack against Iraq's sovereignty," the Associated Press reported. "At the same time, it also denounces any terrorist attacks launched by such groups against the neighboring countries," he said.
Wednesday's strikes followed the killing of at least eight Turkish soldiers and one civilian in an attack by Kurdish guerrillas earlier that day, as renewed violence in the country's restive southeast appeared to intensify. The attack marked the worst on Turkish troops since 13 soldiers were killed in Diyabakir province in July, and came days after Ankara signaled that tougher measures against rebels would follow the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Later Thursday, Turkey's National Security Council said in a statement it will adopt a "more effective and decisive fight" against terrorism and warned that rebel operations would be "responded to in the harshest way."
It was unclear how the upswing in violence and the heated rhetoric would affect the so-called Democratic Opening announced by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in 2009, promising cultural and political rights for the Kurds.
Kurds have been expecting equal citizen rights in Turkey's new constitution, which the government says it has started to draft.
As a part of the peace process, state delegations had, until recently, held regular meetings with the PKK's imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, on the prison island of Imrali in western Turkey, where he has been serving a lifetime since 1999. Analysts said the resumed violence wouldn't necessarily signal the failure of these discussions.
Earlier this month, Mr. Ocalan accused both his own organization and the state of using him as "the subcontractor," and said he will "give up" making an effort.
More than 30 Turkish soldiers have died since attacks intensified last month. The clashes also have left about 10 rebels dead.
Turkey Hits Kurds in Iraq for Second Day - WSJ.com