Turkish troops were engaged in fierce clashes with Kurdish militants in northern Iraq as they closed in on one of the main separatist camps, security sources said yesterday.
Members of the Kurdish security force in the autonomous north of Iraq said that sustained fighting continued unabated since late Sunday as troops, backed by artillery and air cover, fought to seize a main rebel camp in the Zap area.
The camp, situated in a deep valley just a 6km walk from the Turkish border, is one of the main passages used by Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels to infiltrate Turkish territory for attacks.
PHOTO: AFP
Clashes also continued since late on Monday in the mountainous Hakurk area to the east, close to Iraq's border with Iran, where the Turkish army air-dropped troops and helicopter gunships pounded rebel positions, the sources said.
The fighting came a day after Turkish jets bombed Hakurk, a prominent PKK stronghold some 20km from the Turkish frontier.
Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq on Thursday evening in the largest cross-border offensive in years against PKK hideouts in the region, bombing rebel positions and fighting the militants on the ground.
The Turkish army said on Monday it had killed 153 PKK rebels and lost 17 soldiers since the beginning of the incursion.
A statement posted on the Turkish military's Web site on Monday said it had hit some 30 PKK targets in a 24-hour period.
In past clashes, Turkish troops have sometimes left the bodies of guerrillas in the remote areas where they were killed, fearing they could be booby trapped. Turkish fatalities are easier to document because slain soldiers receive elaborate burials that are usually attended by officials and military officers.
The rebels said Turkey could not win the conflict.
"They have stepped into a quagmire, they are trying to set themselves free," Firat, a pro-Kurdish news agency, quoted PKK commander Bahoz Erdal as saying.
Havaw Ruaj, a PKK spokesman, said four PKK fighters have been killed and eight wounded in cross-border fighting. Firat carried a rebel claim that 81 Turkish soldiers had died.
Rebels clashed with troops at the al-Zab border area but heavy snow on Monday hampered movement by the Turks and bad weather caused fewer flights by Turkish jets and helicopters, Ruaj said.
He said Turkish troops were as far as 15km inside Iraqi territory at some points. Turkey's NTV television said soldiers were 25km inside Iraq.
"We are using guerrilla fighting techniques and not fighting as one fixed front," Ruaj said.
Turkish troops fired dozens of salvos of artillery shells at suspected rebel hideouts on Monday and clashed with the rebels in four parts of northern Iraq, the military said. It did not specify the locations.
It said troops were destroying rebel shelters, logistics centers and ammunition. Retreating rebels were setting booby traps under the corpses of dead comrades or planting mines on escape routes, it said.
In Washington, Lieutenant-General Carter Ham, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that the US has no indications that the Turks were straying from their original assurance to Washington that their incursion would be "limited in depth and in duration."
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was