Турция начала полномасштабное вторжение в Ирак

[Pilot]

Турция начала полномасштабное вторжение в Ирак

Турецкая армия начала наземную операцию против курдских сепаратистов на севере Ирака. По сообщениям местных СМИ, в военной операции принимают участие около 10 тыс. военнослужащих, передает Reuters.

Турция неоднократно заявляла о намерении провести вооруженную операцию против боевиков Курдской рабочей партии (КРП), скрывающихся в горах на севере Ирака. Однако до столь крупных военных операций дело не доходило. Анкара ограничивалась спецоперациями в приграничных районах и нанесением бомбовых ударов по курдским сепаратистам.

Последняя тактика приносит турецкой армии определенный успех. Так, в середине декабря с.г. Генштаб турецкой армии сообщил об уничтожении 175 курдских боевиков в результате масштабной воздушной атаки на лагеря повстанцев. Чуть позже турецкое правительство обратилось к боевикам с требованием сложить оружие, пообещав в противном случае продолжить военные операции.

Напомним, что после целой серии нападений курдских сепаратистов на турецких солдат в приграничных районах парламент Турции 17 октября 2007г. принял решение о проведении спецоперации в северном Ираке. К границе были стянуты около 100 тыс. солдат, однако операция так и не была начата.

Возможно, Анкара решила не спешить с вторжением после инцидента 21 октября 2007г. Тогда в результате нападения курдов на турецкое подразделение были убиты 13 солдат, еще 11 человек получили ранения. Столкновение продемонстрировало турецким военным масштаб возможных потерь в случае вторжения в курдские районы северного Ирака.

КРП ведет вооруженную борьбу за создание независимого курдского государства на юго-востоке Турции с 1984г. В результате столкновений за минувший период в регионе погибли более 37 тыс. человек.

Анкару в вооруженной борьбе против курдов поддерживает Вашингтон. Однако Белый дом ранее выступал против полномасштабного вторжения Турции в Северный Ирак, опасаясь, что боевые действия отразятся на поставках нефти по трубопроводу Киркук (Ирак) - Джейхан (Турция). Нефть по нему поступает в США. Резко против вторжения Турции в Северный Курдистан выступает и Багдад, который вместе с тем признает, что не в состоянии взять ситуацию в этом регионе под контроль.

22 февраля 2008г ссылка

[Markos]

На севере Ирака убиты 22 турецких солдата

Курдские боевики убили 22 турецких солдат в столкновениях на севере Ирака, сообщил представитель Рабочей партии Курдистана. Он также отметил, что в боях получили ранения пять боевиков.

Ранее представитель вооруженных сил Турции сообщал о гибели 24 курдов и пяти турецких солдат. Уточнение информации о погибших затруднено, поскольку бои идут в труднодоступных горных районах. // Reuters

[Sari Galin]

The new invasion of Iraq

Up to 10,000 Turkish troops launch an incursion which threatens to destabilise the country's only peaceful region

By Patrick Cockburn

A new crisis has exploded in Iraq after Turkish troops, supported by attack planes and Cobra helicopters, yesterday launched a major ground offensive into Iraqi Kurdistan.

The invading Turkish soldiers are in pursuit of Kurdish guerrillas hiding in the mountains. They are seeking to destroy the camps of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) along the border between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan. "Thousands of troops have crossed the border and thousands more are waiting at the border to join them if necessary," said a Turkish military source.

"There are severe clashes," said Ahmed Danees, the head of foreign relations for the PKK. "Two Turkish soldiers have been killed and eight wounded. There are no PKK casualties." Turkish television said that the number of Turkish troops involved was between 3,000 and 10,000, and they had moved 16 miles inside Iraq.

But the escalating Turkish attacks are destabilising the Kurdish region of Iraq which is the one peaceful part of the country and has visibly benefited from the US invasion.

The Iraqi Kurds are America's closest allies in Iraq and the only Iraqi community to support fully the US occupation. The president of the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government, Massoud Barzani, said recently he felt let down by the failure of the Iraqi government in Baghdad to stop Turkish bombing raids on Iraqi territory.

The incursion is embarrassing for the US, which tried to avert it, because the American military provides intelligence to the Turkish armed forces about the location of the camps of Turkish Kurd fighters. Immediately before the operation began, the Turkish Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan, called President George Bush to warn him.

The US and the Iraqi government are eager to play down the extent of the invasion. Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, a US spokesman for Iraq, said: "We understand [it] is an operation of limited duration to specifically target PKK terrorists in that region." The Iraqi Foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, claimed that only a few hundred Turkish troops were in Iraq.

But since last year Turkey has succeeded, by making limited incursions into Kurdistan, in establishing a de facto right to intervene militarily in Kurdistan whenever it feels like it.

Many Iraqi Kurdish leaders are convinced that a hidden aim of the Turkish attack is to undermine the Kurdish region, which enjoys autonomous rights close to statehood. Ankara has always seen the semi-independence of Iraqi Kurdistan, and the Kurds' claim to the oil city of Kirkuk, as providing a dangerous example for Kurds in Turkey who are also demanding autonomy.

Many Turkish companies carrying out construction contracts in the region have already left. And businesses that remain are frightened that Ankara will close Iraqi Kurdistan's lifeline over the Harbour Bridge into Turkey.

During the 1990s the Turkish army carried out repeated attacks in Iraqi Kurdistan with the tacit permission of Saddam Hussein, but this is the first significant offensive since the US invasion of 2003. "A land operation is a whole new level," said the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza, adding that the incursion was "not the greatest news".

The Turkish army is unlikely to do much damage to the PKK, which has some 2,500 fighters hidden in a mountainous area that has few roads, with snow drifts making tracks impassable.

The Turkish ground offensive was preceded by bombing. "We were certain yesterday after this bombing that a military operation would take place and we got ready for it," said Mr Danees, adding that bombing and artillery had destroyed three bridges on the Iraq-Turkish border as well as a PKK cemetery.

Another reason why Turkey has launched its offensive now has as much to do with Turkish internal politics as it does with any threat posed by the PKK. The PKK launched a military struggle on behalf of the Kurdish minority in eastern Turkey in 1984 which lasted until the PKK's leader Abdullah Ocalan was seized in Kenya in 1999 and later put on trial in Turkey. The PKK has been losing support ever since among the Turkish Kurds, but at the end of last year it escalated guerrilla attacks, killing some 40 Turkish soldiers.

Limited though the PKK's military activity has been, the Turkish army has used it to bolster its waning political strength. For its part, the mildly Islamic government of Mr Erdogan is frightened of being outflanked by jingoistic nationalists supporting the military. Mr Erdogan has pointed out that previous Turkish army incursions into Kurdistan in the 1990s all failed to dislodge the PKK.

The area which the Turkish army has entered in Iraqi Kurdistan is mostly desolate, with broken terrain in which bands of guerrillas can take refuge. The PKK says it has left its former bases and broken up into small units. The main bases of the PKK are along Iraq's border with Iran, notably in the Kandil mountains, to the south of where the Turkish troops entered. At this time of year the villagers, many of them herders and shepherds, leave their houses and live in the towns in the plain below the mountains until the snow melts.

[Sari Galin]

Курды шумят в Полисе против "Опирасия"

А у турецких ВС броня из категории "Что Аллах Послал" )))

[Sari Galin]

Иракские курды сбили турецкий вертолет

Курдские боевики сбили на севере Ирака турецкий военный вертолет Cobra, сообщает BBC News.

По словам руководителя отдела внешних отношений Рабочей партии Курдистана Ахмеда Даниса (Ahmed Danees), инцидент произошел накануне вечером в районе боевых действий между курдами и турецкой армией. Подтверждения данной информации с турецкой стороны не поступало.

Напомним, что турецкая армия начала масштабную сухопутную операцию против курдских боевиков в северном Ираке вечером 21 февраля. В боевых действиях принимают участие не менее 10 тысяч военнослужащих, бронетехника и авиация. Турция планирует проводить операцию не менее двух недель. Многие страны, включая США, уже призвали Турцию немедленно вывести войска из Ирака.

По данным турецкой стороны, за время операции были уничтожены 79 курдских боевиков. Курды заявляют о ликвидации 22 турецких солдат.

[Sari Galin]

PKK rebel urges Kurds to rise up in Turkey-agency

REUTERS

ANKARA, Feb 24 (Reuters) - A top Kurdish PKK rebel commander has urged Kurds living in Turkish cities to rise up and fight the authorities in protest against Turkey's land offensive into northern Iraq, the pro-PKK Firat news agency said on Sunday.

"If they want to destroy us, our young people must make (Turkey's) cities uninhabitable," the agency quoted Bahoz Erdal, a senior PKK commander in northern Iraq, as saying.

Ankara sent thousands of ground troops across the mountainous border into northern Iraq on Thursday to crush PKK guerrillas who use the region as a base from which to attack targets inside Turkey.

[Sari Galin]

Turkish raid strains U.S.-Kurd ties

American support in strike against PKK rebels threatens relations with key Iraqi allies.

By Sam Dagher | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

Amadiyah, Iraq - Peshmerga Gen. Muhammad Mohsen took down his American flag, folded it up, and placed it in his office corner Sunday, reflecting the growing anger in Iraq's Kurdish north with US support for Turkey's campaign against separatist rebels operating in the region.

The intermittent offensive against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) reached a crescendo Thursday when ground troops crossed into Iraq in a campaign involving nearly 8,000 soldiers. Officials here say it is Turkey's most significant strike against the rebels in more than 10 years.

Frustration over the Turkish incursion cuts across the spectrum. Many average Iraqi Kurds sympathize with the PKK rebels' aim to form an independent Kurdistan and officials say Turkey's real goal is to destabilize its semiautonomous government, the leaders of which have long been American allies.

"We think the United States is making a big mistake," says General Mohsen, who once led Iraqi Kurdish fighters alongside US forces when they entered the northern city of Mosul during the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

On Sunday, eight Turkish soldiers were killed, bringing the death toll among the Turks to 15. Turkey said it killed 112 PKK rebels, which has been denied by a rebel spokesman quoted by Reuters. He said that 47 Turkish soldiers and only two rebels were killed.

Amid the distant sound of occasional explosions on Sunday, Turkish warplanes buzzed over a desolate mountain pass in the village of Sirya in Amadiyah, 15 miles from the Turkish border. Besides vultures hovering over the jagged mountain peaks, Kurdish government forces were the only fighters in the area. A bridge over a gushing creek in the area was reduced to a pile of metal.

Turkish artillery and warplanes are targeting a west-east border belt that extends from Amadiyah in Dohuk Province to the Sidakan area in Arbil Province.

Kurdish anger toward US for providing assistance to Turkey, its NATO ally, in its bombardment of suspected PKK targets has been simmering since last fall. It has led to public outbursts and now it appears to have become more serious, threatening one of the most important partnerships for the US in Iraq at a time when Washington is anxious to translate security gains into more lasting stability.

Adding to the stakes is the fact that US forces, with the help of Iraqi forces dominated by Kurdish contingents, continue to battle Al Qaeda-linked militants and other insurgents in areas such as Mosul and Kirkuk, which border Kurdistan and have significant sectarian and ethnic tension.

The event that unleashed most of the Kurdish anger here was what took place Thursday when about 350 Turkish soldiers rolled out of their barracks inside Iraq at Bamerne, west of Amadiyah, in 13 tanks to join their comrades coming from across the border, according to Mohsen. About 1,200 Turkish soldiers are stationed at Bamerne.

Hundreds of Peshmerga fighters, backed by local residents, rushed to the area to prevent Turkish forces, who were already two miles outside the base (a remnant from the last major Turkish incursion into northern Iraq in the mid-1990s), from going any farther.

"The Peshmergas told them if you go any further we will kill you," Mohsen says.

In a sign of the gravity of the situation, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) leader Massoud Barzani rushed to Dohuk, the main city in the area.

"He told me I will be the first to die in fighting the Turks," according to Mohsen.

The region's prime minister, Nechirvan Barzani, says the Turks have been emboldened by the support and intelligence they received from the US military in December to carry out a sweeping air assault against the PKK that Ankara said killed 175 rebels and hit more than 200 targets. The decades-old confrontation between the Turkish Army and the PKK has been escalating since the fall.

"They know the United States has been very soft with them [Turks], so they want to take advantage," says Mr. Barzani, a nephew of the president. "They gave them intelligence and allowed them to bombard our territory, so they ask for more now. This was a big mistake by the US to allow them to use the airspace."

Barzani says he's convinced the PKK is only a pretext for what he says is a Turkish war against the KRG. "Turkey publicly says their target is the PKK, but based on the movement that we see, we do not believe that's their only target. The target is the KRG.... We will resist. If they cross that border to come to us, we will fight."

Thousands of Peshmerga forces have been dispatched to the border area as a precaution against any further Turkish advance. Mohsen points to a red line along the Mateen mountain range in the area that he says if Turks crossed would trigger direct war with his forces.

Metehan Demir, a veteran defense correspondent now with the Hurriyet newspaper in Ankara, says the Turkish operation was carried out now, in the winter season, to catch the PKK off guard. "Everybody was expecting this operation to be carried out in the spring – as well as the PKK.... Such a move by the Turkish Army destroys the PKK's [spring defensive] plans because it was carried out in this season."

He says that while there has been much criticism for the operation among Kurdish officials in Iraq, it will not have much impact on the military decisionmaking in Ankara, Turkey's capital. He says senior Turkish politicians and generals have laid the groundwork with the US and Iraqi governments, and even Iraqi Kurds, to minimize criticism.

"Don't look at what [iraqi Kurdish leader] Barzani and other Kurdish authorities say; this is just a good boy, bad boy game and it's not so surprising for Ankara," says Mr. Demir. "This time the political climate has been arranged…. It's not so bad for Turkey."

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates – who will visit Ankara this week – said Sunday that Turkey's campaign would not solve its problems with the rebels.

"After a certain point, people become inured to military attacks and if you don't blend them with these kinds of nonmilitary initiatives, then at a certain point the military efforts become less and less effective."

[Sari Galin]

Turks send more tanks into Iraq against PKK

Turkish tanks cross into northern Iraq from the Habur border near Turkey's south-eastern city of Diyarbakir

Turkey sent military reinforcements into northern Iraq yesterday as clashes with militants from the Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK) continued for a fourth day. According to the Turkish army, another 25 tanks crossed the border to help the hunt for PKK fighters, whom Turkey accuses of launching attacks on its forces from bases in the sparsely populated mountains along the Turkish-Iraqi border.

"The bombings are continuing by land and by air; the clashes are becoming heavier," a Turkish military source told the Reuters news agency.

Roj TV, the voice of the PKK, reported that 5,000 Turkish troops with 60 tanks had launched an offensive against the militants early yesterday in the Matin mountains. Ahmed Deniz, a PKK spokesman, told the Guardian that fierce fighting was continuing in several places along the border.

Since the major air and ground offensive began last week, Turkey says 15 of its soldiers and 112 militants have died. The PKK claims that 47 Turkish soldiers have been killed. The PKK spokesman said its fighters also brought down a Turkish army helicopter in the remote Chamsku area, close to the border. Turkey confirmed the loss of a helicopter, but said it was due to unknown reasons.

The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, insisted that the operation was limited. "Our Iraqi brothers should know that this operation is only to clean the terrorist camps and terrorists," he said.

Washington has sanctioned limited cross-border operations by Ankara against the PKK, which has been described by President George Bush as a "common enemy". It has provided the Turkish military with intelligence on the militants' positions and opened up Iraq's airspace to facilitate bombing raids.

Iraq's government criticised the offensive. "We know the threats that Turkey is facing, but military operations will not solve the PKK problem," said a government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh.

The incursions have raised tension in Iraqi Kurdistan, where there is anger with the US for giving the green light to Ankara. "We are their friends and we thought we were their allies," said Muhammad Qadir, a shopkeeper in Irbil. "We don't support the PKK, but we are angry that the Americans are allowing the Turks to wage war against our fellow Kurds."

Many Iraqi Kurds believe Turkish generals are using the presence of the PKK in Iraq as a pretext to destabilise the Kurdish autonomous area. Iraqi Kurdish leaders also complain that Turkish bombing has destroyed civilian infrastructure, including four bridges.

"This is going to destabilise security and safety of the region," Nechirvan Barzani, Iraqi Kurdistan's prime minister, told a news conference in Irbil. He said the region's authorities had taken steps over the past few months to crack down on the PKK, as requested by Ankara and the Americans. "The US told us the operations will be limited, and we expected the crisis would be over by the end of last year, yet unfortunately still it is ongoing," he said.

Kurdish military commanders say up to 30,000 Kurdish peshmerga forces have been deployed in the mountain regions and stand ready to defend Iraq should the Turks go too far or target civilians.

[Sari Galin]

For Turkey, cost of attack may be too high

By Richard A. Oppel Jr.

DOHUK, Iraq: Viewed from the outside, Iraqi Kurdistan looks close to war. Tens of thousands of Turkish troops are amassed on the border.

And thousands of Iraqi Kurdish pesh merga fighters have taken up positions in the Mateen Mountains, ready for a counterattack, their local commanders say, should any Turkish operation hit civilians.

But wander the markets and byways here and a different reality comes into view, helping to explain why, despite bellicose Turkish threats, an all-out armed conflict may be less likely than is widely understood: The growing prosperity of this region is largely Turkish in origin.

In other words, while Turkey has been traditionally wary of the Kurds of Iraq, it is heavily invested here, an offshoot of its own rising wealth. Iraqi Kurdistan is also a robust export market for Turkish farmers and factory owners, who would suffer if that trade were curtailed.

Moreover, the Kurds' longstanding fear of dominance by other powers now seems to be colliding with modest yet growing material comfort for some urban Kurds that was unthinkable not long ago. It has come on the back of Turkish investment, consumer goods and engineering expertise.

About 80 percent of foreign investment in Kurdistan now comes from Turkey. In Dohuk, the largest city in northwestern Kurdistan, the seven largest infrastructure and investment projects are being built by Turkish construction companies, said Naji Saeed, a Kurdish government engineer who is overseeing a 187-room luxury hotel with a $25 million price.

Some of the projects, including overpasses, a museum and the hotel, are financed or owned by the Kurdistan Regional Government, Saeed said, underscoring the direct financial partnership. Turkish investors are also building three large housing projects, including a $400 million venture that will feature 1,800 apartments as well as a health clinic, school, gas station and shopping center.

At the construction site for a 15-story office building in central Dohuk, all of the engineers and managers are Turkish, as are dozens of laborers. "There are not any Kurdish engineers for a big project like this," said Ahmed Shahin, the Turkish engineering manager.

Since the American invasion four years ago, Dohuk has had a burst of consumerism, also thanks largely to Turkey. At the upscale Mazi Supermarket, rows and rows of Turkish-made glassware, shoes, cleaning supplies, beauty products and frozen chickens are for sale. Sixty percent of Mazi's products are from Turkey, said Sherwan Jamil, a store manager. Many other products are imported through the Turkish border crossing at Zakho.

"Turkish things are the best, better than Syria and Iran," said Shamiran Eshkery, 34, as she shopped for shoes. "We don't have any problem with Turkish food and clothing, but we are upset because we don't want to fight."

Indications are growing that Turkish officials do not want a large battle, either. Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, suggested in Washington this week that military operations in Iraq would be narrowly concentrated on guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, who use the jagged mountain border frontier as a haven after attacks in Turkey.

"We have taken the decision to pursue an operation," Erdogan said Monday through an interpreter at the National Press Club. "We are not seeking war," he added, but he offered no specifics or timing.

His battle is largely one of perception, trying to convince the Turkish public that he is acting against the Kurdish guerrillas and that he has U.S. support to do so. But most analysts in Turkey expect any attack to be limited. Whatever the case, Erdogan's visit seemed to satisfy the Turkish public. Daily newspapers Tuesday shouted headlines like, "Green Light to the Operation." Hard-line nationalists expressed disappointment, but on talk shows, most seemed to welcome the result.

"People are probably giving the government the benefit of the doubt at the moment," said Ilter Turan, a political science professor at Istanbul Bilgi University. "Most are relieved that no major operation will start on Iraq."

But if a large attack were to occur, Turkish soldiers would encounter thousands of Kurdish pesh merga fighters who have formed a loose defensive line that parallels the Turkish border along the ridges of the Mateen Mountains. Kurdish leaders speak only generally about repelling an invasion, but political and military commanders here have specific instructions: Attacks on civilian villages will draw a fierce counterattack.

"If the civilians face any problems, that is our 100 percent red line," Muhammad Muhsen, a regional leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party office in Amedi, said in a recent interview, before Kurdish authorities prohibited local commanders from discussing the conflict with Turkey. Amedi anchors a large border region where fighters are camped on south-facing slopes as trucks bring pesh merga fighters and weapons up curvy roads.

Muhsen expressed a common fear among Kurdish commanders, that the Turkish military wanted to use recent guerrilla attacks as an excuse to damage the Kurdish autonomous region in Iraq. "Turkey doesn't even want to say the name Kurdistan," he said. "How would it ever accept Kurdistan as an independent nation?"

Yet years of fighting the PKK have made for strange bedfellows, especially in Bamarni, a village north of Dohuk. In the mid-1990s the Kurdistan Democratic Party, the dominant power in western Kurdistan, allowed the Turkish military to occupy several bases on the Iraqi side of the border, when both were fighting the PKK. The Turks now have about 1,500 soldiers at these bases, said a senior American military official in Baghdad who was not authorized to speak for the record.

In Bamarni, Kurdish pesh merga fighters are now stationed at a camp beside a Turkish air base that is home to dozens of tanks and armored vehicles. Turkish soldiers routinely dash out in gun trucks to deliver food to soldiers operating tanks that oversee the air base. They also buy supplies at local shops, said Ahmed Saeed, a local political official at a Kurdish outpost nearby.

"They have no obstacles to going to the market," said Saeed, who estimated that as many as 400 Turkish soldiers and 50 tanks were at the base. The pesh merga never have problems with the soldiers, he said. But if heavy fighting breaks out he is not sure what to expect.

"If they surrender themselves to us, then we will not kill them, because we are peaceful," he said.

[Sari Galin]

Турки у главного штаба курдов

Спецназ высадился у горы Кандиль в иракском Курдистане

Илья Кононов

Армия Турции атакует главный штаб Курдской рабочей партии. Как сообщила вчера газета «Аксам», спецназ высадился у горы Кандиль в иракском Курдистане с целью обезвредить скрывающихся там лидеров организации. Данный район примыкает к ирано-иракской границе. Возможно вмешательство Тегерана.

Ссылаясь на очевидцев, издание утверждает, что турецкие солдаты особого назначения вчера активно прочесывали территорию вокруг горы Кандиль, в то время как бойцы курдских вооруженных формирований пешмерга заблокировали все подступы и пути снабжения базирующихся на горе участников Курдской рабочей партии. А еще ранее поступала информация о том, что к границе свои силы подтянули и иранцы.

Напомним, что у Турции и Ирана не только во многом совпадают позиции по вопросу курдского сепаратизма, но и имеется богатый опыт координации действий в данном вопросе. Например, летом 2006 года турецкие войска уже заходили на иранскую территорию в рамках очередной операции против курдов, получив на это от Тегерана полный карт-бланш. Не исключено, что история может повториться и сейчас.

Правда, на этот раз Анкара решилась на действительно масштабное вторжение в иракский Курдистан. В операции задействовано до 10 тыс. военнослужащих, артиллерия, авиация и другая боевая техника. Столь мощную атаку обычно более сдержанные центральные власти в Багдаде назвали «настоящей войной», о чем даже объявили по центральному телевидению. Правда, на этом острота риторики иракского руководства явно исчерпалась.

Единственное, на что посетовал глава МИД Ирака Хошияр Зибари – это на несвоевременное уведомление о начале боевых действий. Нас известили о вторжении «в самый последний момент», – отметил министр, указав на то, что Анкара решила заранее поделиться своими планами только с американцами. Последние же вовсе воздержались от какой-либо жесткой критики в адрес турков.

Так, отправляющийся с очередным визитом в Анкару министр обороны США Роберт Гейтс лишь выразил пожелание, чтобы турецкие войска «покинули Ирак сразу, как только их миссия будет завершена». ООН, в свою очередь, просто призвала турецкое правительство к «сдержанности». Сами турки, которые обвиняют курдскую организацию в сепаратистской и террористической деятельности на турецкой территории, поспешили заверить, что против мирного населения они ничего не имеют.

Куда более агрессивно по отношению к мирным жителям настроены курдские боевики. Один из их руководителей Бахоз Ердал прямо призвал своих соратников «сделать невыносимой» жизнь в турецких городах. «В больших городах курдская молодежь должна дать отпор военной операции. Наших бойцов не семь и не десять тысяч, нас сотни тысяч. Мы везде, в каждом турецком городе», – подчеркнул он. По его словам, курды не против обычных турок, но «такова логика войны».

С осени прошлого года турецкая артиллерия и авиация периодически ведут обстрелы базирующихся в Ираке боевиков КРП, при этом компактно населенный курдами юго-восток Турции оставался в целом спокойным. Однако многие наблюдатели не исключают, что очень скоро Турция может столкнуться с масштабной волной терактов и волнений. Пока же итогами начавшегося 21 февраля вторжения стали, по разным данным, гибель до 100 курдских боевиков и от девяти до 22 турецких солдат, а также потеря одного боевого вертолета ВВС Турции.

[Pilot]

Борьба курдов за свободу заставит мир содрогнуться

Их история стара, борьба за независимость насчитывает века, культура самобытна, а аргументов создать свою страну намного больше, чем у любого европейского народа. Когда курды начнут войну за независимость – мир содрогнётся. Тем более, что Турция вторглась в Ирак и попыталась этому воспрепятствовать.

ссылка

[Alexandre Rodrigues]

А еще ранее поступала информация о том, что к границе свои силы подтянули и иранцы.

Напомним, что у Турции и Ирана не только во многом совпадают позиции по вопросу курдского сепаратизма, но и имеется богатый опыт координации действий в данном вопросе. Например, летом 2006 года турецкие войска уже заходили на иранскую территорию в рамках очередной операции против курдов, получив на это от Тегерана полный карт-бланш. Не исключено, что история может повториться и сейчас.

[Sari Galin]

Iraq's Kurdish lawmakers demand end to Turkey treaty

dpa - International News Service in English

Ankara/Baghdad (dpa) - As heavy snowfalls in northern Iraq slowed down the advance of Turkish troops fighting Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq, the parliament of Iraq's Kurdish Autonomous Region called on its government to end a military agreement allowing for incursions into each other's territories to seek out Kurdish rebels.

Heavy snow had forced a partial halt of ground troops in northern Iraq, the Turkish General Staff said in a message posted on its website Tuesday.

The statement said two Turkish soldiers were killed Monday night by fire from long-range weapons and that the bad weather conditions made it not possible to immediately calculate how many Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters had been killed in returning fire. It was not stated where the clash took place.

The latest casualties brings the Turkish death toll from the operation to 19. The Turkish military claims to have killed 153 PKK fighters since Thursday night. The PKK has refuse to accept the numbers given.

Angered at the incursion, Iraqi Kurdish lawmakers in an emergency session on Tuesday called on the government of the Kurdish region to end the treaty that Iraq under former President Saddam Hussein and Turkey had signed in emergency circumstances allowing each country to send troops up to 25 kilometres over the border to pursue separatist rebels.

The lawmakers also said the United States should live up to its legal responsibility in Iraq to protect the sovereignty and airspace of the Kurdish region and urged Baghdad to demand compensation for damages suffered by civilians.

The Iraqi government meanwhile said that although it understood the good intentions of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, it insisted on a speedy withdrawal of Turkish troops from northern Iraq.

Iraqi cabinet spokesman Ali al-Dabagh said PKK activities in Iraq were not acceptable but that military action undertaken by Turkey in the past had yielded few results.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday attempted to calm concerns that the incursion could lead to instability in Iraq by reiterating that the operations sole aim was the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK).

"I want to make this clear and underline this once again. These operations are not directed at the administration in northern Iraq. They are only directed at the terrorist organization. They are aimed at cleansing the (region) of terrorist camps. Our sole target is the terrorist organization," Erdogan said in Ankara

"Our armed forces are taking every precaution in order that the people of (northern Iraq) are not hurt," Erdogan said, adding that Turkey has always supported the territorial integrity of Iraq and that the PKK was a danger to the stability of Iraq.

The Iraqi government said that although it understood Erdogan's good intentions, it still insisted on a speedy withdrawal of Turkish troops from northern Iraq.

Iraqi cabinet spokesman Ali al-Dabagh said PKK activities in Iraq were not acceptable but that military action undertaken by Turkey in the past had yielded few results.

Iraq Parliament speaker Mahmud al-Mashhadani urged Turkey to immediately pull out its troops from northern Iraq.

"What Turkish troops have done is a flagrant violation of Iraq's sovereignty and a dangerous threat to security in the entire region," al-Mashhadani said in a statement on Tuesday.

An envoy of Turkish President Abdullah Gul will hold talks in Baghdad Wednesday over the military offensive, al-Dabagh said.

The PKK on Tuesday accused Turkey of seeking to make political gains from its military action in northern Iraq.

"The Turkish army is trying to create an area under its control in Iraq. The aim is to target PKK but it also has political objectives, mainly in Kirkuk," Mazkin Almid told Voices of Iraq.

Turkey was seeking a foothold in the area to be able to influence developments in Kirkuk, she said, referring to ongoing tensions on whether the oil-rich city should become a part of the Kurdish Autonomous Region.

Turkey launched "Operation Gunes" on the night of February 21, sending as many as 10,000 troops into Iraq with the aim of destroying the PKK's ability to use northern Iraq as a base from which to launch attacks on Turkey.

The Turkish military estimates there are between 4,000 to 5,000 PKK guerrillas based in the region.

Ankara blames the separatist group for the deaths of more than 32,000 people since the early 1980s when the PKK began its fight for independence or autonomy for the mainly Kurdish-populated south-east of Turkey.

The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

[Sari Galin]

rpt

[Sari Galin]

Turkey attacks Kurds; US calls for halt

Turkey Keeps Up Attacks on Kurds in Northern Iraq Despite US and Iraqi Calls for Swift Halt

BURHANETTIN OZBILICI

AP News

Turkish fighter jets, helicopters and hundreds of commandos streamed across the border into northern Iraq Wednesday despite Iraqi and American calls to swiftly end an operation to root out Kurdish insurgents.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said before departing for Turkey that he will tell officials there that the six-day assault must not last longer than a week or two.

It was the first time that Gates, who that Turkey must be "mindful of Iraqi sovereignty," put any time limit on the incursion.

Gates also said before leaving India that he will call on Turkey to use economic and political initiatives to address some of the complaints of the Kurds — who are the majority in Turkey's southeast and neighboring northern Iraq. Iraq has demanded an immediate end to the cross-border operation against the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

In Baghdad, Turkish envoy Ahmet Davutoglu, chief foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said the aim of the incursion was "clear and limited" and said no timetable will be set "until the terrorist bases are eliminated."

More than 40 Turkish military trucks ferried hundreds of commandos toward the Iraqi border and F-16 warplanes were seen flying over the border town of Cukurca toward Iraq. Helicopters brought dozens of troops to a base on the outskirts of the town. Some helicopters also headed toward Iraq.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said after meeting Davutoglu that, "We condemn the terrorists and the PKK, but we also condemn the violations of the sovereignty of Iraq at the same time and we have to be very clear on that."

Turkey said its troops had killed 77 Kurdish rebels in overnight clashes that were the most intense of the incursion in northern Iraq. Five soldiers were also killed.

The remote battle sites are inaccessible to the press and casualty reports cannot be independently confirmed.

The total death toll for the rebels since the operation began Feb. 21 reached 230, the military said. Two dozen soldiers and three pro-government village guards also have been killed.

PKK spokesman Ahmad Danas denied the Turkish military's claim that 77 Kurdish rebels had been killed in the overnight clashes, saying the rebels had only lost one fighter since Tuesday night and seven others were wounded. The rebels have said only a few PKK fighters and more than 80 Turkish soldiers have died.

It is the first confirmed Turkish military ground operation in Iraq in about a decade against the rebels, who are fighting for autonomy for southeastern Turkey and have carried out attacks from northern Iraq. The conflict has killed up to 40,000 people since 1984. The U.S. and European Union consider the PKK to be a terrorist group.

The Turkish military said warplanes have hit 225 targets, including anti-aircraft batteries, caves, shelters, training facilities, command and communication centers, while artillery units struck 475 similar targets.

"There are sporadic clashes with terrorists that arrived as reinforcements to the region in two separate areas on the sixth day of the operation," the military said on its Web site.

"There are signs that some high-level names of the organization might still be among terrorist groups in the (combat) zone," it said. In past operations, the military has monitored radio communications of rebels.

Turkey has long suspected the Iraqi Kurd administration in the north of allowing the PKK to operate and ignoring calls for a crackdown on the group. Turkey's military said this week that it had received information that some wounded rebels were being treated in hospitals in northern Iraq.

The Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq denied the allegations.

"We challenge anyone who says that PKK wounded fighters are receiving treatment in our hospitals," spokesman Jamal Abdullah said. "We have nothing to do with PKK fighters and routes to areas where clashes are taking place are closed."

Turkish Kurds protesting the incursion in the eastern town of Dogubayazit threw stones at the local branch of the ruling party as well as the main police station, NTV television showed. Police used tear gas to disperse the crowd, it said.