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Turkey launches Iraqi Kurd offensive

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has called on his Turkish counterpart to respect Iraq's borders after renewed shelling on Thursday, and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani accepted an invitation to visit Turkey.

The Turkish military confirmed yesterday it had launched a ground offensive backed by fighter jets into northern Iraq overnight to hunt down Kurdish rebels. On Thursday, Iraqi Kurdish officials reported Turkish shelling of northern areas.

Turkey's military had sent 10,000 troops, private broadcaster NTV said yesterday

In a phone call to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday night, Maliki said Iraq considered the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels a threat to their shared border but urged dialogue to promote security.

"Maliki asked Erdogan to respect the sovereignty of Iraq's borders and inviolability of its lands ... and stressed the importance of avoiding a military solution," Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement.

An Iraqi border forces officer, Colonel Hussein Tamer, said Turkish shelling hit several Kurdish villages in Sedafan area, some 30km from the border.

Jabbar Yawar, a spokesman for the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, said sporadic bombing was taking place in the border areas, but no casualties were reported.

Yawar said Turkish fighter jets had penetrated Iraqi air space, but had not dropped any bombs.

Fouad Hussein, a spokesman for the semiautonomous Kurdish government, said the Kurdish Peshmerga security forces had been put on alert. He said Kurdish forces also had tightened security around bases housing Turkish military monitors operating in northern Iraq with permission from local authorities under a 1996 agreement.

"The government of Kurdistan ordered the Peshmerga forces to be on alert in fear of any Turkish incursion on Iraqi territory," he said, claiming that Turkish military monitors had tried to leave their bases in violation of the terms of the 1996 agreement.

"Those troops tried to move out but the Peshmerga forces forced them to return to their camps within half an hour," he said.

In Ankara, Turkey's civilian and military leaders issued a statement after a bimonthly meeting on national security, saying cross-border attacks by the military would continue as long they were "deemed necessary."

The military did not comment on the reports of shelling, but denied a news report out of Iraq that claimed that Turkish forces had clashed with Iraqi Kurd fighters in northern Iraq.

A convoy of approximately 50 military vehicles carried special forces to areas close to the border in the southeastern province of Hakkari late on Wednesday, private news agency Dogan reported on Thursday.

Military helicopters were combing the area and two Turkish warplanes were seen flying toward northern Iraq on Thursday, but it was not clear whether they were on a bombing mission.

Turkey has confirmed a total of five aerial attacks inside Iraq since Dec. 16 against the rebels.

The aerial assaults were part of a US-backed campaign to chip away at guerrilla strength. But Washington has cautioned Turkey not to stage a ground operation that could increase tensions with Iraqi Kurd leaders, who are allied with US troops in Iraq and destabilize a relatively peaceful part of the country.

Sedat Laciner, head of the Ankara-based International Strategic Research Institution Organization, claims Turkish ground incursions are inevitable and the US is not opposed to it. He said senior Turkish and US military officers were discussing the matter.

"Contrary to Turkish people's perception, the US does not oppose ground operations. But it does not want an all-out, uncontrolled operation staged without its cooperation," he said.

Turkey has staged ground incursions against Turkish Kurd rebels in northern Iraq in past years. The rebels, who seek autonomy for the mostly Kurdish population in southeastern Turkey, have launched attacks into Turkish territory from bases in northern Iraq.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the decades-old fighting.
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