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Turkish troops attack PKK rebels

Yusef Khalil, right, an Iraqi Kurd, sits in front of his house in the village of Shelaza near the Iraqi-Turkish border, about 475km northwest of Baghdad, on Sunday. Most of the Shelaza villagers have fled their homes, fearing a possible Turkish offensive into northern Iraq. PHOTO: AP

Turkey's military attacked Kurdish rebels in the southeastern province of Tunceli on Sunday, a mostly Kurdish area that is a base for the separatist Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK).

Special forces troops, supported by helicopter gunships, assaulted the rebel positions, the state-run Anatolian news agency said. The area was closed to traffic, causing disruptions along local roads, it said. Local news agencies said at least 15 rebels had been killed, though the military declined to confirm that number.

The mountainous area where the military operation took place is roughly 650km from the border with Iraq, where raids by Iraqi-based PKK rebels have killed at least 42 people in the past month and led to increased tensions between Turkey, Iraq and the US.

While Turkey has refrained from beginning a large-scale military incursion into Iraq, operations against the PKK in its southeastern region have been taking place for several weeks, the government has said. On Friday, minor clashes occurred between the army and rebels in Bingol, a town in the southeast. The army said in a statement on Saturday that there were no casualties.

The military operations come ahead of a visit to the US by Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Nov. 5. Many political analysts view his meeting with US President George W. Bush as crucial before Turkey decides whether to send forces into Iraq to dismantle the PKK. Washington is strongly opposed to any military action by Turkey in northern Iraq.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari was quoted yesterday as warning of disastrous regional consequences if Turkey launched a major invasion of Iraq to strike at Kurdish rebels.

Zebari told the BBC in an interview the present crisis was "dead serious" and that Turkey had shown no interest in Iraqi proposals to calm the situation, the broadcaster said in a report on its Web site.

Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops, backed by warplanes and tanks, on the border between the two countries for a possible offensive against an estimated 3,000 Iraq-based rebels from the outlawed PKK.

Ankara feels threatened by the Kurdish separatists, especially those attacking from bases in mountainous northern Iraq, and says it may use a military solution.

Zebari was quoted as saying there was nothing to stop Turkey taking action against PKK bases in the border mountains.

But the large-scale Turkish military build-up had raised fears the Turks were planning something bigger and deeper into northern Iraq, Zebari said.

Such a step, he said, would have "disastrous consequences" for stability in both countries and in the wider region.

"This would be a unilateral decision and that's why people are resisting that," Zebari said. "That's why the whole government of Iraq and the whole people of Iraq are united really not to see their sovereignty, their territorial integrity undermined by a friendly neighboring country."

Zebari was quoted as saying Turkey had demanded Iraq hand over senior members of the PKK sheltering in Iraq, a request he said was impossible to fulfil.

"They are not under our control, in fact. They are up in the mountains, they are armed," he said.
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