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/ 31 January 2008

Istanbul factory blast kills 19

At least 19 people were killed and 69 were injured on Thursday when an explosion ripped through an Istanbul building that housed workshops including an illegal fireworks factory. Television footage showed debris from the building strewn through the streets of the industrial district of Davutpasa.

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/ 18 December 2007

Rice pushes ‘roadmap’ as Turkish troops enter Iraq

United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on a visit overshadowed by a Turkish incursion into northern Iraq, called on Iraqi leaders on Tuesday to urgently implement a national reconciliation roadmap. Turkish troops crossed overnight into the Iraqi Kurdish province of Dahuk, about 200km from the city of Kirkuk, where Rice’s plane first touched down.

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/ 16 December 2007

Turkey bombs northern Iraq, woman killed

Turkish warplanes targeting Kurdish rebels bombed villages deep in northern Iraq on Sunday, killing one woman and forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes, local officials said. In Ankara, the Turkish military’s General Staff said in a statement its warplanes had attacked targets of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party.

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/ 4 November 2007

Kurdish rebels free abducted Turkish soldiers

Eight Turkish soldiers, kidnapped last month in an ambush by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, were released in northern Iraq, a PKK official said on Sunday. The release of the soldiers came a day after the Iraqi government vowed to hunt down Kurdish guerrilla leaders responsible for cross-border raids into Turkey.

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/ 3 November 2007

Iraq conference looks at tensions on Turkey border

Turkey stepped up pressure on the United States to help curb attacks by Kurdish rebels from northern Iraq as a conference on Saturday of Iraq’s neighbours and major powers sought to lower cross-border tensions. The ”neighbours’ conference”, hosted by Turkey, was meant to focus on security inside Iraq but instead it is overshadowed by tensions between Turkey and Iraq.