A high-level Iraqi delegation was expected to visit Ankara yesterday after Turkey's top leadership recommended the government take economic measures to force Iraqi cooperation against Kurdish rebels and Turkey considered a possible military cross-border offensive.
Turkish warplanes reportedly pounded rebel positions along the border. An AP Television News cameraman standing at the Habur border crossing saw a pair of warplanes flying from northern Iraq back into Turkey. It was not clear whether the planes were on a reconnaissance mission.
Several F-16 warplanes were seen taking off from an air base in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir earlier Thursday, local reporters said.
PHOTO: AP
Turkey has threatened to stage an incursion into northern Iraq if Iraqi Kurds and US-led coalition forces do not crack down on Kurdish rebels.
"Turkey is running out of patience and will not tolerate the use of Iraqi soil for the purpose of launching terrorist activities," President Abdullah Gul said yesterday in a speech opening the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization foreign ministers' meeting in Ankara. "We are totally determined to take all the necessary steps to end this threat."
A Kurdish rebel ambush near the border killed 12 soldiers on Sunday. Eight soldiers have been missing since then; the rebels say they are holding them and have distributed photographs and video footage.
The Iraqi delegation will be headed by the Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi and will include Minister of State for National Security Sherwan al-Waili, said Yassin Majid, an adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
"It will discuss all issues between the two countries. The political choice will be the first solution to solve the crisis. The Iraqi government insists on dialogue and cooperation to solve the crisis," he said.
Iraq has already promised to shut down offices used by rebel bases. But Turkey wants Iraq and US forces to destroy rebel bases and extradite the rebel leadership to Turkey.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said Turkey is "expecting them to come with concrete proposals and otherwise the visit will have no meaning."
Turkey's military and civilian leaders on Wednesday urged the government "to first take necessary economic measures against those groups directly or indirectly supporting the separatist terrorist organization in the region."
The self-ruling Kurdish administration in Iraq's north relies heavily on Turkish investment, mainly for construction works, including the building of roads, hospitals and infrastructure.
Ankara is also selling electricity to northern Iraq, and most food sold in markets come from Turkey. The Turkish trade minister said on Wednesday that economic sanctions could be taken.
Turkey's military and civilian leaders face growing demands at home to stage the offensive in northern Iraq, where the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), rest, train and get supplies before returning to Turkey.
Troops yesterday were seen using mine detectors against roadside rebel bombs as they patrolled near the town of Yuksekova in Hakkari Province, bordering Iraq and Iran, the TV crew reported.
Troops have killed 231 Kurdish rebels in clashes since Jan. 1, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported yesterday. It did not say how many soldiers were killed in the clashes in the same period but around 30 soldiers were ambushed and killed this month alone. Security forces have also seized more than 50 tonnes of dynamite and plastic explosives from suspected rebels in the same period, Anatolia reported.
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
RSS