Turkey vows more strikes against rebel targets!
ANKARA, Turkey - August 18, 2011 - Turkey's air force attacked 60 suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq, the military said Thursday, and it vowed to continue the assault until the guerrilla group is "rendered ineffective".
The attacks, which also involved 168 rounds of artillery, occurred in the largely mountainous region near the Turkey-Iraq border and on Mount Qandil on the Iraqi-Iranian border, where the leaders of the rebel group Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, are believed to be hiding, the military said in a statement.
No casualties were reported by the Turkish military, Kurdish media or Iraqi Kurdish security forces in Wednesday's air strikes, which Turkish media said involved laser-guided missiles.
In Baghdad, Iraq's government objected to the attacks, but also said rebels should not launch attacks from its territory aimed at Turkey.
The Turkish assault was in retaliation for an ambush by the autonomy-seeking rebels on a Turkish military convoy Wednesday that killed eight soldiers and a village guard helping the troops. The military said 15 other soldiers were wounded.
Nearly 40 soldiers have been killed in stepped-up PKK strikes since July. Earlier, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan hinted at a major operation against the rebels, saying Turkey has had enough of it. The clashes also have killed about 10 rebels.
Many PKK guerrillas shelter in the mountains of Iraq, crossing the border into Turkey for hit-and-run assaults. The group, which is fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey, is considered a terrorist organization by both the European Union and United States.
Turkey has carried out several cross-border airstrikes and ground incursions to fight the PKK in Iraq over the last few years. But Wednesday's was the military's first offensive into northern Iraq since last summer, when Turkish planes carried out a series of similar retaliatory raids on suspected rebel hideouts across the border.
"The Turkish armed forces will continue with similar actions inside and outside of Turkey with determination, until the north of Iraq becomes a secure, livable area and the separatist organization, which uses it as a base for attacks on Turkey, is rendered ineffective," the military said on its website.
