ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Turkish warplanes bombed a Kurdish rebel hideout in northern Iraq on Monday — the third air strike in retaliation for an attack that killed 15 soldiers three days ago.
The military said its warplanes bombed the Avasin Basyan region of northern Iraq after spotting a group of rebels. Turkish fighter jets had struck suspected rebel hideouts in northern Iraq on Friday and Saturday. And Turkish artillery units pounded suspected rebel positions in the Avasin Basyan region Sunday, the military statement said.
Turkey stepped up its military activity after the fiercest battle between Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels in eight months: Fifteen soldiers and at least 23 insurgents were killed Friday, and another 20 soldiers were wounded. Two soldiers are reported missing.
The violence broke a period of relative calm that had lasted since February, when Turkey claimed to have killed hundreds of rebels in a ground offensive in northern Iraq.
Turkey's Parliament is scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether to extend by a year the military's authority to carry out operations in northern Iraq. The current mandate expires Oct. 17.
In other fighting, a village guard paid by the government to assist troops was killed in a clash with rebels in the Amanos mountains in southern Turkey on Sunday, the private Dogan news agency reported Monday.
The PKK has been fighting for autonomy in Turkey's southeast since 1984. The group is branded a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
The military said in a statement on its Web site that all planes involved in Monday's attack returned safely and said it took precautions to avoid civilian casualties.
The military has accused Iraqi Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq of providing the rebels shelter and support. But Ahmet Deniz, a Kurdish rebel spokesman, said Monday that the Iraqi Kurdish administration in northern Iraq was not helping the rebel group. |