Tunceli, Turkey - Thousands of Turkish troops backed by warplanes and heavy artillery launched a fresh drive against Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq yesterday, a military official said. The official in the eastern Turkish town of Tunceli said around 10,000 soldiers crossed the border into the remote Iraqi region of Khwakurk early in the day to strike at Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) bases in the area.
"The operation in northern Iraq . . . is to deal a last deadly blow to the PKK before the onset of winter," the official, who asked not to be identified, said. He said the rebel Kurds had begun reforming around Khwakurk, close to Iraq's border with Iran and Turkey, after recent fighting with Turkish troops and had been preparing an offensive on Turkey's Iraqi Kurd allies in the region. - (Reuters)