IRAQ:TURKISH FORCES battled Kurdish guerrillas at close quarters as they advanced on a key PKK base in northern Iraq yesterday, and Baghdad warned a prolonged incursion could have serious consequences for the region.
Backed by warplanes, tanks, artillery and combat helicopters, troops killed 41 rebels yesterday, the Turkish general staff said in a statement, taking the total PKK death toll since a major offensive began on Thursday to 153.
"Close combat with the terrorists is continuing in two separate zones," the Turkish military said in a statement. "The troops in the critical zones of the operation were reinforced and some of the troops were replaced by fresh forces."
The military said 17 soldiers had died so far in the campaign, fought in harsh winter conditions to root out Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas who have used the mountains of northern Iraq as a base for its fight for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey since the 1990s.
Iraq's national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said in Baghdad that fighting could have "very serious consequences" for a part of Iraq that has been relatively stable compared with the rest of the oil-rich country.
The White House said Turkey's incursion, estimated to involve thousands of troops according to a senior Turkish military source and media, should be limited.
"It's obviously not an ideal situation," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters in Washington. "We hope that this is a short-term incursion so that they can help deal with the threat."
Ankara launched a ground incursion on Thursday in a remote part of Iraq's largely autonomous region to hunt down PKK rebels. It said Iraqi authorities had for years failed in undertakings to crack down on the rebels.
Pressure has mounted on the government after a series of deadly attacks on soldiers and civilians. A Kurdish security official said Turkish troops and PKK rebels clashed during the night in the Amadiya area, 10km south of the border. Turkish media said commandos were engaged in close battle some 2km from a key PKK command centre in the Zap valley after heavy aerial bombardment.
A PKK spokesman in northern Iraq, Ahmed Danees, said 81 Turkish soldiers and four rebels had been killed so far in the offensive. It was not possible to verify the information.
Turkey blames the PKK, classed as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people since it began its armed struggle in 1984.
Turkey's deputy prime minister, Cemil Cicek, said Turkish troops would withdraw once they had completed their mission.
"Turkey tried hard in the past to avoid this outcome [of military action] . . . The operation targets only the separatist terrorist organisation, we have no other target," Cicek told reporters after a weekly cabinet meeting in Ankara.
"When this operation has hit its targets, our units will return home," he added, without giving a timeframe.
Thousands of flag-waving Turks mourned the deaths of three army officers killed in the operation at their funerals in Ankara's main mosque yesterday.
Turkish president Abdullah Gul postponed at the last minute a planned trip to Africa this week due to the offensive.
US officials say Ankara has given assurances it will do all it can to avoid civilian casualties in northern Iraq. Washington has provided Turkey with intelligence to track down PKK rebels, estimated to number about 3,000 in northern Iraq.
There have been no reports of civilian casualties, but residents in villages near the border say they are being targeted in Turkish air strikes and artillery barrages.
So far the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces have stayed on the sidelines. While Iraqi Kurds have little sympathy for the aims of the PKK, there is widespread anger over the incursion.
- (Reuters)