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| Iraq |
| Offensive against Kurdish rebels to continue: Turkey |
| 2008-02-29 |
| Turkey said on Thursday its offensive against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq would continue “as long as necessary”, rejecting the US pressure for a speedy end to the week-old military incursion. Turkish warplanes, meanwhile, bombed separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) positions in northern Iraq and intensive fighting was reported on the ground near a major rebel base, Iraqi security sources said. Short incursion: Despite Turkish refusal to give a timetable for a pullout, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said that after talks in Ankara, he believed Turkish leaders got his message. Speaking after meeting with Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul, Gates said the incursion, launched on February 21, should be “as short and precisely targeted as possible”. Gonul responded that “Turkey will remain in northern Iraq as long as necessary” and the troops will return home once PKK hideouts were destroyed. “There is no need for us to stay there after we finish (off) the terrorist infrastructure ... We have no intention to interfere in (Iraqi) domestic politics, no intention to occupy any area,” he told reporters. Gates said on Tuesday the offensive should last no longer than “a week or two” but Turkish army chief Yasar Buyukanit made it clear that Turkey would not be constrained by deadlines. “A short time is a relative term. Sometimes this can mean one day and sometimes one year,” he said after talks with Gates, adding that the United States had been fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan “for years”. Ankara says an estimated 4,000 rebels use northern Iraq as a base in their campaign for self-rule in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast; the conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives since the PKK took up arms in 1984. |
| Posted by:Fred |