TURKEY has staged new air raids on Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq and more strikes will follow, the Turkish military has said.
It was the second air raid aimed at separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) bases in northern Iraq in six days. Turkish troops have also staged a land incursion this week.
"Turkish aircraft attacked major positions of the terrorist organisation" PKK, before Turkish artillery shelled the area for 15 minutes, the military has said.
It gave no details on targets, saying only that more information would be given next week and that the military would carry out more operations despite the winter conditions in the mountainous region.
"It will become well understood how effective the operations against the terrorist operations are," it has said. The PKK "no longer has a chance of success" against the Turkish army.
In northern Iraq, Jabbar Yawar, spokesman for the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga security force, has said Turkish warplanes had hit isolated Kurdish villages.
"In the afternoon Turkish warplanes entered northern Iraqi airspace in an area called Al-Amadiyah. Later they bombed Iraqi Kurdish villages. We do not know the extent of damage. But these areas are largely deserted and are along the border with Turkey," he said.
The Turkish television channel NTV said the raids were in the Amadiyah area of northern Iraq.
Actions over recent weeks had left "hundreds of terrorists" dead, it added.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and many other countries, has waged a bloody campaign for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey since 1984. The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.
Turkey has been stepping up pressure since its parliament approved cross-border raids on PKK bases in northern Iraq. Turkish leaders said the Iraqi government and its US backers were not doing enough to halt Kurd rebel attacks in Turkey.
The new raid follows air attacks on December 16 on the Qandil mountains where Ankara says some 3500 PKK rebels are holed up, using the area as a springboard for attacks on Turkey.
On Tuesday, Turkish troops penetrated into northern Iraq from the southeast Turkish province of Hakkari, the army has said. Iraqi officials said about 500 Turkish troops took part in the ground operation.
Ankara has accused Iraqi Kurds, who run an autonomous administration in the north of the country, of tolerating and even supporting the PKK.
The United States fears that Turkey could launch a major cross-border operation and destabilise the relatively peaceful northern part of Iraq.
After a flurry of diplomatic activity, Iraq has promised to rein in the PKK and in November US President George W. Bush said Washington would provide Ankara with information on rebel movements from its satellites.
The US administration said on Wednesday that it had been informed about the December 16 raids in advance.
Turkish chief of staff General Yasar Buyukanit said earlier that the United States approved the December 16 air raids by providing "intelligence" and opening Iraqi airspace.
On Tuesday the president of Iraq's Kurdish region, Massud Barzani, refused to meet visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Baghdad in protest at US support for Turkey's strikes, a top Kurdish official said.
Ankara has denied that civilians were hit on December 16, blaming reports of villages being bombed and hospitals and schools destroyed on PKK sympathisers among Iraqi officials seeking to mislead the international community.
The UN refugee agency has said that around 1800 people fled their homes in Sulaimaniyah and Erbil provinces in northern Iraq following the attacks.
Share this article
NEWS.com.au is not responsible for the content of external sites.
__NOTOC__



El ejército de Turquía anunció que bombardeó por segunda vez en seis días a lo que llama "rebeldes Kurdos". Por 35 minutos, diez aviones de caza atacaron a bases en el norte de Iraq, en una área montañosa cerca de la ciudad iraquí de Duhok, pertenecientes al Partido de los Trabajadores de Kurdistán (PKK), un partido político armado ilegal que busca la independencia de los territorios del Kurdistán para formar un Estado socialista.

La milicia turca dijo que está planificando más ataques.

En su website, la milicia turca dijo: 

No se reportaron muertes causadas por el ataque por las autoridades iraquíes.

Jabbar Yawer, representante de prensa de la rama armada del PKK en Iraq, dijo: "''El bombardeo aéreo no resultó en muertes porque el área está casi abandonada por el miedo a ataques aéreos y de mortero de parte del lado turco''".

=== Serie de ataques turcos ===

Tras unos ataques de rebeldes del PKK durante el mes de octubre, en el que murieron 25 tropas turcas cerca de la frontera iraquí, la milicia turca a llevado a cabo varias incursiones a varios locales kurdos. Los más recientes ataques fueron un bombardeo aéreo, seguido por una incursión, en la que más de 300 tropas turcas cruzaron la frontera e invadieron al norte de Iraq, el 16 y 18 de diciembre, respectivamente. Por causa de estos ataques, la "infrestructura y el personal del PKK han sufrido grandes pérdidas", dijeron oficiales turcos. La PKK reportó siete muertes tras los ataques.