Turkey ‘hits PKK targets’
Warplanes and ground troops reportedly raid Iraqi territory to target separatists.
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“I think it is pretty difficult to say troops shouldn’t [invade] when the Turkish soldiers are being killed, and their villages attacked” Advertisement
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Turkey has confirmed that eight soldiers are missing following the ambush.
An operation against the PKK, backed by air cover, is under way in Tunceli, it said.
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Thirty-four Kurdistan Workers’ party fighters were reportedly killed in attacks on their positions between Sunday and late on Tuesday.
“Further ‘hot pursuit’ raids into northern Iraq can be expected, though none have taken place so far today [Wednesday],” a military official said.
However, another Turkish official told the Associated Press, on condition of anonymity, that there was no Turkish air strike in northern Iraq, but confirmed that shelling had been carried out by artillery units.
The PKK has been fighting for self-rule in southeastern Turkey since 1984 and Ankara has been angered by the group’s use of bases in northern Iraq to stage attacks.
Barzani appeal
Reports of the attacks came as the president of Iraq’s northern Kurdish region urged the PKK to end its armed campaign against Turkey.
“We call upon the PKK to eliminate violence and armed struggle as a mode of operation,” the office of Massoud Barzani, president of the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq, said in a statement.
“We do not accept in any way, based on our commitment to the Iraqi constitution, the use of Iraqi territories, including the territories of the Kurdistan region, as a base to threaten the security of neighbouring countries.”