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Iraq: Kurdish Villagers Flee Areas Near Turkish Border
(AKI) - A day after reports first confirmed then denied a Turkish military incursion into northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, Turkey's Doga news agency reported that people began leaving their villages in the area of Mount Kandil, a cross-border stronghold of Kurdish separatists fighting Turkey for more than two decades. Several news reports on Wednesday said that thousands of Turkish troops had streamed over the border into Kurdistan, in an apparent offensive against PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) militants. Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan denied that Turkish troops had entered northern Iraq. "If such a step has to be taken we would consult with the military and then discuss it in the parliament. There are some procedures to be completed before acting, Erdogan said in a television interview.He also repeated his support for the military and did not rule out a military raid. If the security forces ask our consent [to carry out cross border raids against the PKK] we would not stand against them. The step would be taken at the relevant time. On Wednesday afternoon the Associated Press news agency quoting unidentified Turkish officials saying that Turkey had launched military operation into northern Iraq. Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul was the first top official to deny the report. He was followed by his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari and White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe both of whom said no Turkish incursion had taken place. However, military sources cited by some Turkish media said a "hot pursuit" operations against the PKK were underway in the frontier areas and that Turkish troops had conducted limited operations in the mountains located in northern Iraq where PKK militants are based. On Monday, in the latest attack blamed by Ankara on the PKK, seven soldiers were killed in a military post near the southeastern city of Tunceli. Late last month six people were killed and 100 were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up in front of a crowded shopping mall in Ankara. This was followed by the killing of six soldiers in the southeastern city of Sirnak in a landmine attack, and an attempt to assasssinate Tunceli's police chief in a roadside bomb explosion. The PKK has denied responsibility for the Ankara bombing. Posted by: Fred 2007-06-08 |
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