Turkish jets fired on Kurdish positions inside Iraq today:
Turkish airforce jets on Thursday struck in northern Iraq, bombing bases believed to be operated by the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the Cihan news agency reports. The PKK which is banned in Turkey had earlier appealed to the population in the villages in Iraqi Kurdistan, near the Turkish border, to leave the area, predicting military attacks by Turkey and Iran. The separatist group also said it had proposed some sort of truce to Ankara.
Turkish military officials stated that the F-16 jets which took off during the night had inflicted serious casualties on the PKK, the agency reported, adding that ground operations are continuing along the Iraqi border.
The Kurds are concerned that there is a joint Turkey-Iranian operation at work:
F-16 jets carried out air strikes against targets in the Kanimasi and Snaht regions in northern Iraq.
Army officials stated that the F-16 jets which took off during the night had inflicted serious casualties on the PKK.
In addition to the air strikes, Turkish security forces are continuing their operations along the Iraqi border.
The U.S. government is looking into allegation of Kurdish reports of a joint Turkish-Iranian operation against the PKK in northern Iraq.
In other Kurdish news, two more mass graves were found in northern Iraq near Bashdar, in the province of Sulaymaniya. The graves are close to a military base that was used by Saddam Hussein’s forces.
