Turkish war planes cross into Iraqi air space, strike Kurds

Turkish and artillery units have struck Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq over the weekend, Turkey’s military said on Saturday. The military said its raids on Friday and Saturday targeted rebels who were preparing to infiltrate Turkey to carry out attacks.

Military called the strike the biggest Turkish air operation there this year.

A Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) spokesman said the bombing had caused no casualties.

SERIES OF AIR STRIKES

Turkey carried out a series of air strikes in northern Iraq since the end of a cross-border land offensive in February, which prompted concern in Washington about further regional instability and was watched closely in financial markets.

It was the second Turkish air strike in a week on northern Iraq, which the PKK uses as a base from which to launch attacks in Turkey, after an operation on Wednesday.

Military had said on Friday that the air operation began about 7:30pm and later said it continued into the early hours of Saturday.

The Turkish military tends to step up operations against the PKK in the spring when the snow melts, making it easier to move about in the mountainous region.

“Turkish air force planes, supported by ground weapons, struck PKK targets in an effective operation on April 25 to April 26,” the general staff said in a statement on its Web site.

INSIDE TURKEY

Clashes Turkish soldiers and PKK guerrillas continued inside Turkey on Saturday in the mountainous province of Sirnak, bordering Iraq.

The general staff said two soldiers were killed in clashes on Friday and a mine explosion in the same province killed a soldier and a member of the village guard militia, which works alongside the army in the mainly Kurdish southeast.

After a series of air strikes in December, the Turkish military conducted an eight-day incursion into northern Iraq in February, in which it said 240 PKK members and 27 of its own men were killed.

Washington its NATO ally with intelligence on PKK activities in northern Iraq, but called for the cross-border operation to be brought to a swift end.

MORE OPERATIONS

After withdrawing, Turkish Chief of General Staff Yasar Buyukanit said that more land operations against Kurdish rebels could be launched if necessary.

Ankara the PKK for 40,000 deaths since 1984, when the group took up arms to try to establish an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey.

The US and the EU consider it a terrorist organization.