Turkish warplanes and troops attacked Kurdish rebels inside Iraq this week, security sources said on Wednesday, but Ankara wants to hold back from any major incursion for now and give diplomacy a chance.
Turkey moved more troops to the mountainous border, keeping up pressure on Baghdad to honour promises to crack down on an estimated 3 000 rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), who use the region as a base.
Security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed a series of sorties between Sunday and Tuesday evening in which Turkish warplanes flew 20km into Iraq and about 300 ground troops advanced about 10km.
”Further ‘hot pursuit’ raids into northern Iraq can be expected, though none have taken place so far today [Wednesday],” a military official said.
Thirty four PKK rebels were killed in the sorties, he said, adding all Turkish troops involved in the operations were now back in Turkey.
But Abdul Rahman Jaderji, a PKK spokesperson in northern Iraq, told Reuters there had been no direct fighting between the two sides since clashes on Sunday in which 12 soldiers were killed.
He said Turkish troops had been shelling areas of northern Iraq, but little new shelling had been reported on Wednesday.
Baghdad has pledged to act against the rebels. A Turkish official on Wednesday quoted Iraqi President Jalal Talabani as saying Iraq might hand over PKK militants to Turkey. Talabani had previously ruled out any such move despite Turkish appeals.
The official described as a ”final chance” for diplomacy the planned visit to Ankara on Thursday of an Iraqi delegation headed by National Security Minister Shirwan al Waeli.
Reinforcing
Washington and Baghdad fear a major Turkish incursion into northern Iraq could destabilise the whole region. But Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s government is under heavy public pressure to take tough action, especially since Sunday’s deaths.
Ankara is sceptical about Baghdad’s ability to crack down on the PKK in northern Iraq, where the central government has little clout. And the publication of photographs said to show eight Turkish soldiers captured by the PKK has added to pressure on Ankara to act.
”We are reinforcing our troops near the border at Silopi and Uludere with men drawn from other parts of the country,” a military source told Reuters in south-east Turkey on Wednesday.
Turkey, which has Nato’s second biggest army, has deployed as many as 100 000 troops, backed by tanks, F-16 fighter jets and helicopter gunships, along the mountainous border in preparation for a possible large-scale strike.
Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30 000 people since the group launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in south-east Turkey in 1984.
Turkey’s National Security Council, comprising political leaders and army top brass, met on Wednesday in Ankara to mull possible economic measures against the Kurdish administration of northern Iraq over its continued failure to tackle the rebels.
”The prime minister has indicated this meeting could produce economic sanctions, for example, cutting off electricity to northern Iraq or the closure or slowing down of traffic at the Habur border gate,” said Suat Kiniklioglu, an AK Party lawmaker. — Reuters