Turkey’s military confirmed yesterday that its air force had pounded Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq and it vowed to continue the attacks until the guerrilla group was “rendered ineffective.”
A military statement said the jets hit 60 suspected rebel targets on the largely mountainous region near the border with Turkey late on Wednesday as well as targets on Mount Qandil, along the Iraqi-Iranian border, where the leaders of the rebel group Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) are believed to be hiding.
The strikes were in retaliation for an ambush by the autonomy-seeking rebels on a Turkish military convoy on Wednesday that killed eight soldiers and a village guard who was helping the troops. The military said 15 other soldiers were wounded.
Close to 40 troops have been killed in stepped-up PKK strikes since last month.
Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had hinted at a major operation against the rebels, saying Turkey had reached the end of its tether. The clashes have also killed about 10 rebels.
Turkish and Kurdish media reported that Turkey’s air force sent jets into northern Iraq on Wednesday. However, officials did not confirm the raids until yesterday.
Many PKK guerrillas shelter in the mountains of Iraq, crossing the border into Turkey for hit-and-run assaults.
The group, which is fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey, is considered a terrorist organization by both the EU and the US.
Turkey has carried out several cross-border airstrikes and ground incursions to fight the PKK in Iraq over the last few years. However, Wednesday’s is the military’s first offensive into northern Iraq since last summer, when Turkish planes carried out a series of similar retaliatory raids on suspected rebel hideouts across the border.
The military said Turkish forces also fired 168 rounds of artillery on suspected PKK targets, targeting rebel sites and avoiding civilian targets. All planes returned to base safely and the operation was a success, it said. There was no word on any casualties.
A Kurdish news agency that is close to the rebels said the jets pounded “empty fields” and there were no PKK casualties.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
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