President Gül offers condolences after air raid
ŞIRNAK - Hürriyet Daily News
President Abdullah Gül. AA photo
President Abdullah Gül offered condolences to families of civilians killed in an air raid late Dec. 28.
Funerals are underway in the Uludere village in the southeastern province of Şırnak after Turkish warplanes conducted an air strike on a group of smugglers crossing into Turkey from Iraq after mistaking them for members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Gül said he shared to pain of the relatives of the dead and said the incident would be probed.
A specially authorized public prosecutor in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, meanwhile, has launched an investigation into the raid.
Thirty-five civilians between the ages of 16 and 20 were killed in the botched air raid, which prompted the Turkish General Staff to launch an investigation of its own into the bombing.
Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu asked for an official government apology.
"The people cannot get information freely. Thirty-five of our citizens were killed and still the government is silent," Kılıçdaroğlu said.
