 The Turkish armed forces stated on Thursday that the Turkish air force is shelling Kurdish rebel targets along the border with northern Iraq, resulting in the killing of many Kurdish rebels. Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Namik Tan said in a statement that "Turkey is forced to commence such operations to protect its security and to prevent terrorists from entering the country's borders" Commenting on the dissatisfaction of the Iraqi government towards the operations, Tan said "we have told the Iraqi ambassador about the security arrangements which only aim at our protection... it's a routine procedure that we take every spring." Tan said that the presence of Kurdish rebels in Iraq's northern regions makes these operations necessary and asked the Iraqi government to put an end to their activities. |