Middle East News
Turkey claims to have killed 150 Kurdish rebels in Iraq
May 3, 2008, 19:04 GMT
Ankara - The Turkish military on Saturday claimed that air strikes during the week on Kurdish rebel bases inside Iraq left more than 150 rebels dead.
'According to initial estimates from the region, more than 150 terrorists were rendered ineffective in the operation,' the military said in a short statement on its official website.
Late on Thursday night Turkish Air Force planes bombed a number of Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) positions in the Qandil mountains, near Iraq's border with Iran.
Saturday's statement said that the operation had succeeded in destroying all of its targets and that the PKK rebels were in panic.
The airstrikes are the third time Turkish warplanes have hit PKK rebels inside Iraq since the end two months ago of a week-long incursion into northern Iraq that saw up to 10,000 soldiers sent across the border to seek out Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) rebels and their camps.
According to the Turkish military, 240 PKK fighters, 24 Turkish soldiers and three Turkish state-employed village guards were killed in the week-long operation.
Ankara blames the separatist group for the deaths of more than 32,000 people since the early 1980s when the PKK began its fight for independence or autonomy for the mainly Kurdish-populated south-east of Turkey.
The PKK is listed by the United States and the European Union as a terrorist group.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
I wish the Sun would go out . This world is just a horrible horrible place . no offence to the animals , But People , what a stinking bunch of Losers . Greed , Power , Hate , RELIDGION , must be the Will of God eh ? if people would only Rock n roll , We'd have it made .
By now the rivers must be running red!
page: 1
bobMay 3rd, 2008 - 21:28:01
hello
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