Turkey Launches Attack on Rebel Kurds

Turkish troops stationed in northern Iraq have launched a fresh operation against Kurdish rebels, Turkish officials said Saturday.

They said Turkish forces had been hunting rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, for two days in northern Iraq’s White Mountains, near where the borders of Turkey, Iraq and Syria meet.

Turkey has maintained thousands of troops in northern Iraq since a cross-border operation in May.

The PKK, fighting for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey, often use bases in the mountainous area.

Kurdish groups have held sway in northern Iraq since Baghdad pulled its forces out of the region after the 1991 Gulf War.

Iraq condemned Turkey for the latest offensive.

“Iraq strongly denounces such repeated violations and aggressive military operations in northern Iraq,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement.

The spokesman demanded that the Turkish government “withdraw its troops immediately from Iraqi territory and refrain from such practices, which contradict international law and Turkey’s interests.”

“Iraq reserves the right to take any measure which guarantees the protection of its territory and sovereignty,” the spokesman said.

Turkey complains that the power vacuum in northern Iraq has helped the PKK.

“If there was state authority in northern Iraq that could prevent these gangs from attacking a neighboring country, Turkey wouldn’t need to enter northern Iraq,” President Suleyman Demirel said Saturday.

Security officials said it was unclear if there were any casualties from the latest drive.

The regional governor’s office in the Turkish city of Diyarbakir said nine PKK fighters had been killed in clashes inside Turkey.