DIYARBAKIR – Turkey launched air and ground assaults on Kurdish militants in Iraq yesterday, vowing to take “great revenge” after 24 Turkish soldiers were killed in one of the most serious Kurdish attacks in decades.
Turkish officials said about 100 fighters from the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers Party, mounted simultaneous attacks under cover of darkness on seven remote army outposts in Hakkari province, on Turkey’s rugged southeastern border with Iraq.
The PKK, which is fighting for greater Kurdish rights from bases in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, confirmed it carried out the attacks, in which it said five guerrillas died.
The fighting, in which Turkey said it killed 15 militants, threatened wider instability at a time of upheaval in nearby Syria and the imminent withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.
Turkish security sources said commandos pushed up to 8km (5 miles) into Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish fighters and aircraft struck targets around a guerrilla camp on the Zab river.
Backed by his Nato allies, who condemned the attacks as an act of terrorism, Turkish president Abdullah Gul said: “No one should forget this: those that inflict this pain on us will endure far greater pain; those that think they will weaken our state with these attacks or think they will bring our state into line, they will see that the revenge for these attacks will be very great and they will endure it many times over.”
Twenty-four soldiers were killed and 18 wounded in the surprise attacks, prime minister Tayyip Erdogan said at a televised news conference in which he said wide-ranging operations, including hot pursuit missions, had been launched.
Turkish media had earlier put the death toll at 26.
Mr Erdogan cancelled a foreign trip that had been about to start and convened an emergency meeting with the interior and defence ministers, along with intelligence chiefs and top generals. The foreign minister also cancelled a planned visit abroad.
Turkish security officials said Turkish troops had killed 15 Kurdish militants in subsequent clashes. Helicopter gunships struck some targets in the area, and there were some 500 troops on Iraqi soil, some of them ferried in by air.
The PKK statement on the Internet said: “Our guerrillas carried out simultaneous attacks starting at 1am on regiments in the centre of Cukurca district and at Bilican and surrounding military posts . . . Nearly 100 soldiers and special forces police have been killed or wounded.”
Masoud Barzani, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan and himself a former leader of guerrillas who fought Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces, condemned the raids as a “criminal act”.
“This action is first and foremost against the interests of the people of Kurdistan. We call for an immediate end to these attacks.” Mr Barzani added: “Violence and conflict are not a solution.”
Iraqi Kurdish leaders, among them Iraq’s national president, tread a cautious line between solidarity with Turkish Kurds and enthusiasm for cross-border trade and investment with Iraq’s prosperous northern neighbour.
Iraqi officials in Baghdad say it is difficult for them to control the rugged area where PKK guerrillas have their camps and Turkish, Iraqi and US officials meet regularly in Iraqi Kurdistan to discuss security and the border concerns.
Ankara’s recent step up in attacks on the PKK has fuelled concern in Baghdad that Ankara is pushing its influence south, toward rich oil deposits around the Iraqi city of Kirkuk, just as the US forces which overthrew Saddam prepare to leave.
Ethnic Kurds live in an area that sprawls across the borders of Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria. – (Reuters)
