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| Iraq |
| Turkish army claims massive toll from Iraq bombing raid |
| 2007-12-25 |
| The Turkish military Tuesday claimed to have inflicted massive losses on Kurdish rebels in recent bombing raids in northern Iraq as Iraqi Kurds reported a fresh strike by Turkish warplanes in the region. "It is understood that between 150 and 175 terrorists... were rendered ineffective" in a December 16 strike, the general staff said in a statement on its web site. "The figure does not include the terrorists who were rendered ineffective as a result of hideouts or caves collapsing in the air raid." The statement added that many rebels were also wounded in the operation and taken to hospitals in Arbil, Raniyah, Kaladiza and Choman in the north of Iraq. The December 16 bombing was the first Turkish air strike against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq since October when parliament authorised cross-border military action against the armed separatist group. The PKK said at the time that five of its militants and two civilians were killed. The strike, which was backed by artillery, destroyed all of its targets including 16 command, training and logistical bases as well as 182 hideouts, 10 anti-aircraft defence positions and 14 ammunition depots, the army said. That attack was followed by a small-scale ground operation in which Turkish troops penetrated "several kilometers" into northern Iraq from the southeast Turkish province of Hakkari. A second air raid on December 22 targeted "hideouts and anti-aircraft positions belonging to the PKK," the army said. Since then, officials in northern Iraq have reported two other Turkish air raids, including a brief one on Tuesday which the Turkish army has not confirmed. An official from the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga security force said Turkish planes bombed three villages in northern Iraq on Tuesday, targeting rebel bases in the Kurdish province of Dohuk. He said Tuesday's air strike lasted around 10 minutes shortly after midday, and hit the villages of Rikan, Shezee and Samjuhu in the border region of Al-Amadiyah. "The villages were deserted," the official said on condition of anonymity. The series of raids have been coordinated with the US military in Iraq and US President George W. Bush spoke to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday. Turkish news agency Anatolia said Bush gave his backing for military strikes on PKK bases and that the two men hailed the cooperation in Ankara's battle against the outlawed group. They agreed to continue sharing intelligence and again classed the PKK as a "common enemy", Anatolia said, stressing that Erdogan told Bush that Turkey's military operations were only targeting rebels. Turkey had complained the Iraqi government and its US backers were not doing enough to halt PKK attacks inside Turkey from sanctuaries in northern Iraq. An estimated 3,500 PKK militants are based in northern Iraq and use camps in the region as a springboard for attacks across the border on Turkish targets. Ankara has accused Iraqi Kurds, who run an autonomous administration in the north of the country, of tolerating and supporting the PKK. Iraq officials have protested over the Turkish raids. Since 1984, the PKK's armed rebellion against Turkey for Kurdish self-rule has claimed more than 37,000 lives. The group is classed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. Turkey, which has the second largest army in the NATO military alliance after the US with 515,000 troops, has moved around 100,000 soldiers up to its 380-kilometre (235-mile) border with Iraq. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #8 Merry Christmas, RD, even to sinse, right? ;-) |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2007-12-25 20:51 |
| #7 Shit makes better points than you do sinse. So get back in that smelly box of yours and get fu'cking lost. Joe haz more heart and class than your entire retarded lineage. |
| Posted by: RD 2007-12-25 18:29 |
| #6 Shit makes better points than you do since. So get back in your smelly box and get fu'cking lost. |
| Posted by: RD 2007-12-25 18:26 |
| #5 PLease not joseph mendola i don't understand that shit you type What part of fuck off don't you understand? |
| Posted by: Thomas Woof 2007-12-25 18:03 |
| #4 And sinse, don't undrestimate Joe, nor his ability to express himself with a crystal-clear clarity ! ;-) |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2007-12-25 15:57 |
| #3 Barzani and Talibani support Turkish Kurds in their struggle for some form of autonomy, in a cultural sense at the least. Unfortuntely, because of Turkish density, obtusenes, and shortsightedness, the only Kurdish group that has some clout are the Kurdish commies (PKK). Since no political representative bodies of Kurds are allowed, what remains is outlaws. Turks learned a wrong thing from the Armenian experience. Genocide won't fly anymore, so they decided for a cultural erasure, instead of giving enough political rights to Kurds to defuse support for extremists within Kurdish communities. Needless to say Turks won't be successful and at some point in time, it will kick them back into their collective ass. Now, in the present situation, Iraqi Kurd leadership knows that the deal is to let Turks to gorge hemselves upon some of their deranged Turkish Kurd brethren in order to prevent a real and wider conflict. That wouldn't be fortunate at the present juncture in time. They may publicly protest and give lip service to sensibilities, but they are not interested to get wrecked what they buit during the last 17 years. They do dream of a Greater Kurdistan that would comprise Iraqi, Turkish and Iranian areas, but they well know the time is not now. With enough patience, and after waiting centuries a few more years or a coule of decades is not that a big price to pay. Their opportune moment will come one day. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2007-12-25 15:54 |
| #2 I would suggest you use common sinse. Barzani's Kurdish faction is supporting the PKK, and Barzani has been for the most part pro-American. Although we oppose the PKK we have tended to support Barzani and Talibani's Kurdish party to insure that the Kurds stayed united as we battled the baathist remnants, alqaeda in Iraq, and the shiite militias and special groups. We are walking a geopolitical tightrope, and we seem to have come down on the side that let us down at the beginning of the War to liberate Iraq. However I think we allowed the Turks to stew in their own juices for a period of time. |
| Posted by: Josep Mendiola 2007-12-25 15:13 |
| #1 OK i have a few questions i'm sure at least one of you rant burgers can answer. PLease not joseph mendola i don't understand that shit you type. 1. If the US considers the PKK a terrorist org. then why have they let them build up bases and supply depots and such in northern iraq? Or was the US somehow backing this org. at one time, other than when Saddam was in power? |
| Posted by: sinse 2007-12-25 12:54 |