Military denies report on ‘false coordinates’

ANKARA

The Turkish General Staff denied yesterday media reports that F-16 jets bombed empty fields after pilots were given wrong coordinates for targets of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

“It saddens us that such claims have been reported without research in order to cause a stir. The list reported in the media was a draft that had not been approved. On Oct. 30, 13 targets were successfully shot,” the General Staff’s statement said.

“The Turkish Armed Forces is capable of giving account of every activity. Such news reports will not damage our fight against terror,” it said.

The daily Taraf wrote this week that official documents it had obtained indicated that 20 locations were targeted to eliminate up to 370 PKK militants in Turkey’s eastern region. The newspaper claimed that paper orders sent to the Air Force listed wrong coordinates, which were provided by the Second Army of the Land Forces, shifting the targets away to empty fields. It suggested the incident may have been intentional.