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Turkish troops enter Iraq after Kurd rebel attacks
[Al Arabiya Latest] Turkish forces pushed into northern Iraq on Sunday, killing four people, including a 15-year-old girl, as they retaliate against hideouts of Kurdish rebels who killed 12 soldiers in the deadliest spell of violence in two years.The ground incursion into Iraq came after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to fight the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) "to the end" in response to what he called the "cowardly" assault by its fighters. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday Kurdish militants would "drown in their own blood" as he lead political and army chiefs in paying respects to troops killed in a clash with the rebels. PKK spokesman Ahmed Denis hit back with a threat to take the rebels' campaign of violence to cities across Turkey if the army did not halt its policy of confrontation. By morning, the troops had advanced 10 kilometres into Iraqi territory in the Qandil mountains where the rebels maintain a network of rear bases in their 26-year-old armed campaign for self-rule in southeastern Turkey, the Iraqi Kurdish security official said. Turkish fire killed a 15-year-old girl and wounded her mother and two-year-old brother in Khwakurq village, Sidikan district commissioner Ahmed Qader told AFP. As Turkish forces crossed the border and advanced into Iraqi territory during the night they killed another three people, a security official said, without specifying whether the dead were civilians or PKK fighters. Inside Turkey, the rebels kept up their attacks during the night, killing one soldier and wounding another, bringing the military's losses over the past two days to 12, Turkey's Anatolia news agency reported. Clashes broke out between troops and PKK fighters after the rebels attacked a barracks near the eastern town of Palu, Anatolia said. Posted by: Fred 2010-06-21 |
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