Turkey strikes suspected Kurdish rebel positions

Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships attacked suspected positions of Kurdish rebels near Iraq on Wednesday, a possible prelude to a cross-border operation that would be likely to raise tensions with Washington.

The military offensive also reportedly included shelling of suspected Turkish Kurd guerrilla hide-outs in northern Iraq, which is predominantly Kurdish. U.S. officials are preoccupied with efforts to stabilize other areas of Iraq and oppose Turkish intervention in the relatively peaceful north. The White House issued a warning Wednesday against such an incursion “at this time.”

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters that a motion authorizing a cross-border operation was being prepared and might reach parliament today. An opposition nationalist party said it would support the motion.

If parliament approves, the military could launch an operation immediately or wait to see if the United States and its allies decide to crack down on the rebels, who have been fighting for autonomy in Turkey’s southeast since 1984 in a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

“If you’re against [the rebels], make your attitude clear and do whatever is necessary,” Erdogan said in comments directed at Washington. “If you cannot do it, then let us do it.”

Turkey and the United States are North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies, but relations have also been tense over the U.S. congressional bill that would officially recognize as genocide the Turks’ World War I-era killing of as many as 1.5 million Armenians. The bill passed a House panel Wednesday and has been sent to the floor. Turkey denies the killings amounted to genocide.

An Iraqi government spokesman said a Turkish military incursion would be regarded as a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.

“We are aware of the size of the threat Turkey is subjected to, but this does not give Turkey the right to enter Iraqi territories,” said the spokesman, Ali Dabbagh.

Turkey has conducted two dozen large-scale incursions into Iraq since the late 1980s. The last, in 1997, involved tens of thousands of troops and government-paid village guards. Results were inconclusive.

The latest Turkish military activity followed attacks by rebels that have reportedly killed 15 soldiers since Sunday.

Turkish troops were blocking rebel escape routes into Iraq while F-16 and F-14 warplanes and Cobra helicopters dropped bombs on possible hide-outs, Turkey’s Dogan news agency reported. The military had dispatched tanks to the region to support the operation against the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which the U.S. has branded a terrorist group.