Turkish warplanes bombed separatist Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq early yesterday, Turkey's military said in a statement posted on its Web site.
One woman was killed in the airstrikes, a local official in Iraq said.
It was the first confirmed operation with fighter jets against rebel targets across the border since the invasion of Iraq, although Turkey has hit Iraqi territory with ground-based artillery and with helicopters.
The US and Iraq have urged Turkey to avoid a major operation against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) bases in northern Iraq, fearing such an operation would destabilize what has been the most stable region in the country.
The attack follows a promise last month by the US to share intelligence about the rebels with Turkey.
The warplanes bombed targets of the PKK in regions close to the border with Turkey as well as in the Qandil mountain chain, which is further away from the frontier, the military's statement said. All planes returned to their bases safely, it said.
After the planes left the operation zone, the army continued firing on the targets with long-range weapons, the military said. Artillery units could be seen firing shells toward Iraq in the early hours yesterday from the town of Cukurca -- where the borders of Turkey, Iran and Iraq meet -- private Dogan news agency footage showed.
Earlier this month, the military said it fired on a group of about 50 to 60 PKK guerrillas inside Iraqi territory, inflicting "significant losses."
Abdullah Ibrahim, a top local official in the Iraqi administrative center of Sangasar, said Turkish warplanes bombarded 10 Kurdish villages, killing one woman and injuring two others.
Ibrahim acknowledged that there were Kurdish rebel bases in the area, about 170km from the Turkish border, but said they were far from the villages that were hit.
"The villagers are now scared and are hiding in nearby caves. They lost all their properties," Ibrahim said.
An Iraqi army officer with the border guard said the attack was on three villages in Iraq's Qandil mountains, where Turkish and Iranian Kurdish rebels are based.
The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
Villages are scattered in the Qandil mountains, some as far as an hour's drive apart over steep roads and paths.
Private NTV television claimed that one of the targets hit was a PKK "command center" in northern Iraq.
PKK "targets in the regions of Zap, Avasin and Hakourk located in Iraq's north, and deep in the Qandil mountains ... were hit through a large-scope aerial operation of the Turkish Air Force," the military said.
It said the air strikes began at 1am local time and the planes returned at 4:15am.
Turkish news reports said the planes had taken off from an air base in Diyarbakir, in southeast Turkey.
The military, in its statement, vowed to press ahead with operations against the PKK "according to military needs with determination."
It said the operation was directed against the PKK and not against the local population in northern Iraq.
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
Seventy percent of middle and elementary schools now conduct English classes entirely in English, the Ministry of Education said, as it encourages schools nationwide to adopt this practice Minister of Education (MOE) Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) is scheduled to present a report on the government’s bilingual education policy to the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee today. The report would outline strategies aimed at expanding access to education, reducing regional disparities and improving talent cultivation. Implementation of bilingual education policies has varied across local governments, occasionally drawing public criticism. For example, some schools have required teachers of non-English subjects to pass English proficiency
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
NEGOTIATIONS: The US response to the countermeasures and plans Taiwan presented has been positive, including boosting procurement and investment, the president said Taiwan is included in the first group for trade negotiations with the US, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, as he seeks to shield Taiwanese exporters from a 32 percent tariff. In Washington, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in an interview on Fox News on Thursday that he would speak to his Taiwanese and Israeli counterparts yesterday about tariffs after holding a long discussion with the Vietnamese earlier. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday postponed punishing levies on multiple trade partners, including Taiwan, for three months after trillions of US dollars were wiped off global markets. He has maintained a 10 percent
RSS