 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| . |  |
. |
25 Kurdish rebels kiled in Turkish air strike in Iraq: army
Ankara (AFP) Oct 24, 2008 Twenty-five Kurdish rebels were killed and a number were wounded in a Turkish air strike last week targeting Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) hideouts in northern Iraq, an army spokesman said Friday. The army received "corroborating reports from various intelligence sources that 25 terrorists were neutralised in the October 17 air raid," General Metin Gurak, the head of the general staff's press department, told a news conference here. Many rebels were also wounded in the strike targeting the mountainous region of Qandil, a major PKK stronghold near the border between Iraq and Turkey, added Gurak, who offered no estimates on the number of wounded. A news agency close to the rebels had claimed at the time that four militants -- members of an Iranian Kurdish separatist organisation linked to the PKK -- had been killed in the raid. A further 17 PKK rebels were killed in security operations inside Turkey in the past week, Gurak said. Violence in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast has escalated after an October 3 PKK attack on a Turkish military outpost on the Iraqi border which killed 17 soldiers. Since then, Turkish planes have launched several attacks on rebel bases in northern Iraq. Earlier this month, Turkey's parliament also extended by one year the government's mandate to order cross-border military strikes against the PKK in northern Iraq, which has been in effect since October 17, 2007. The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in the southeast in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 44,000 lives. Turkish officials estimate about 2,000 PKK rebels are holed up in the mountains of northern Iraq, where they allegedly enjoy free movement and obtain weapons and explosives for attacks in Turkey. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links News From Across The Stans
Suspected US strike kills 11 in Pakistan: officials
Miranshah, Pakistan (AFP) Oct 23, 2008Suspected US spy drones fired missiles early Thursday into a school set up by a top Taliban commander in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan, killing 11 people, security officials said. |
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2007 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
YahooMyWeb
Google
Facebook