Turkey's military attacked Kurdish rebels in the southeastern province of Tunceli on Sunday, a mostly Kurdish area that is a base for the separatist Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK).
Special forces troops, supported by helicopter gunships, assaulted the rebel positions, the state-run Anatolian news agency said. The area was closed to traffic, causing disruptions along local roads, it said. Local news agencies said at least 15 rebels had been killed, though the military declined to confirm that number.
The mountainous area where the military operation took place is roughly 650km from the border with Iraq, where raids by Iraqi-based PKK rebels have killed at least 42 people in the past month and led to increased tensions between Turkey, Iraq and the US.
PHOTO: AP
While Turkey has refrained from beginning a large-scale military incursion into Iraq, operations against the PKK in its southeastern region have been taking place for several weeks, the government has said. On Friday, minor clashes occurred between the army and rebels in Bingol, a town in the southeast. The army said in a statement on Saturday that there were no casualties.
The military operations come ahead of a visit to the US by Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Nov. 5. Many political analysts view his meeting with US President George W. Bush as crucial before Turkey decides whether to send forces into Iraq to dismantle the PKK. Washington is strongly opposed to any military action by Turkey in northern Iraq.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari was quoted yesterday as warning of disastrous regional consequences if Turkey launched a major invasion of Iraq to strike at Kurdish rebels.
Zebari told the BBC in an interview the present crisis was "dead serious" and that Turkey had shown no interest in Iraqi proposals to calm the situation, the broadcaster said in a report on its Web site.
Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops, backed by warplanes and tanks, on the border between the two countries for a possible offensive against an estimated 3,000 Iraq-based rebels from the outlawed PKK.
Ankara feels threatened by the Kurdish separatists, especially those attacking from bases in mountainous northern Iraq, and says it may use a military solution.
Zebari was quoted as saying there was nothing to stop Turkey taking action against PKK bases in the border mountains.
But the large-scale Turkish military build-up had raised fears the Turks were planning something bigger and deeper into northern Iraq, Zebari said.
Such a step, he said, would have "disastrous consequences" for stability in both countries and in the wider region.
"This would be a unilateral decision and that's why people are resisting that," Zebari said. "That's why the whole government of Iraq and the whole people of Iraq are united really not to see their sovereignty, their territorial integrity undermined by a friendly neighboring country."
Zebari was quoted as saying Turkey had demanded Iraq hand over senior members of the PKK sheltering in Iraq, a request he said was impossible to fulfil.
"They are not under our control, in fact. They are up in the mountains, they are armed," he said.
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
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
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
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