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| The Grand Turk |
| Turkish jets, soldiers pound Kurdish rebel bases |
| 2012-09-16 |
| DIYARBAKIR: Turkish armed forces have killed 75 Kurdish militants near the border with Iran and Iraq over the past week, a provincial governor said yesterday, as a major offensive involving several thousand ground troops intensifies. Eight F-16 fighter jets took off from an air base in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir yesterday, a Reuters witness said, apparently to support the operation against militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). “Anti-terror operations are continuing in the region,” the governor’s office in the southeastern province of Hakkari said in a statement. Turkey’s chief of staff, the head of its land forces and its air force commander traveled to the town of Semdinli in Hakkari to oversee the latest offensive, the military said late on Thursday. It said seven battalions were involved. Turkish battalions typically comprise up to 1,000 soldiers. Fighter jets and attack helicopters were targeting PKK camps in two villages in the Kazan valley in Cukurca, a district of Hakkari province on the Iraqi border, where around 250 militants are thought to be based, security sources told Reuters. |
| Posted by:Steve White |