Turkish army bombs PKK lairs

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

Air Force warplanes bombed terrorists in northern Iraq last week, the Anatolia news agency reported Friday, quoting an army spokesman.

The air raids Wednesday and Thursday targeted hideouts of the PKK, in the Khakurk region of the Kurdish-held semi-autonomous north of Iraq, Gen. Metin Gürak told reporters.

He made no mention of PKK losses but stressed that measures were taken to prevent harming the civilian population in the region.

The army has been targeting the PKK in Iraq -- with the help of intelligence from the United States -- under a parliamentary authorization for cross-border military action, which was first approved in 2007 and renewed for another year last October.

Ankara says about 2,000 PKK separatists are holed up in the mountains of northern Iraq, from where they launch attacks on Turkish territory as part of a 24-year separatist campaign.

In November, Iraq, Turkey and the United States agreed to form a joint committee to track the threat posed by the PKK and enact measures to stop the terrorists' activities.

Last month, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said during a visit to Turkey that the three countries would set up a joint center in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil to outline steps against the separatists.

Turkey has often accused the Iraqi Kurds of tolerating and even aiding the PKK.

Upon questioning, Gen. Gürak said the United States’ decision to include the Pejak, a PKK affiliation in Iran, as a terrorist group, was a positive move and the Turkish military welcomed the development. "Pejak is a terrorist organization," Gürak told reporters.

The military spokesperson also answered questions on Turkish-Israeli military ties and the joint maneuvers named "Anatolian Eagle" in Turkey’s territories, which Israeli aircraft pilots are using. Gürak underlined that these maneuvers were not designed for pilots of specific countries and a number of other countries, including Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and France were also participating in the mutual maneuvers.

"The Israeli Air Force participated in these maneuvers only five times, with an average of 10 aircrafts in each," Gürak said. He underlined that Turkish-Israeli military ties were based on the bilateral military agreements that were signed by both sides in the beginning of the 1990s.