Turkish air strikes kill 19 Kurdish militants in north Iraq - military sources

DIYARBAKIR, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Turkish jets carried out air strikes against Kurdish militants in the Gara region of northern Iraq on Friday and killed 19 militants, Turkish military sources said on Saturday.

The warplanes took off from an air base in Diyarbakir in response to threats that the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants were preparing an attack on military units at the border, the sources said.

Turkey frequently launches air attacks against PKK targets in the mountainous regions of northern Iraq near the Turkish border, where the Kurdish militant group's leadership has camps.

A ceasefire between the autonomy-seeking PKK and the state fell apart last year, triggering some of the worst violence in the three decades of the Kurdish insurgency. </s> ANKARA (dpa-AFX) - The Turkish air force has killed 19 Kurdistan Workers' Party fighters in the Gara area of northern Iraq, the state run Anadolu news agency reported Saturday.



In a statement, the Turkish General Staff said that the Turkish jets eliminated 19 terrorists in a security operation, while destructing five shelters of them and a logistics center.



More than 70 PKK and Daesh terrorists have been killed in Turkish air strikes across eastern and southeastern Turkey and northern Syria over the past week, the military said in a separate statement. The military had also dismantled 50 shelters of the PPK fighters during the operations.



Meanwhile, the PKK fighters detonated a vehicle bomb before a gendarmerie station in southeastern Diyarbakir province early in the day, but no causalities have been reported.



An operation is being carried out by the authorities to find the offenders.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX </s> Turkish air strikes kill 3 PKK militants in southeast Turkey - military

ANKARA, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Turkish jets killed three Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in southeastern Turkey near the border with Iraq in air strikes on Thursday, the military said. </s> ANKARA, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Turkish jets killed three Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in southeastern Turkey near the border with Iraq in air strikes on Thursday, the military said.

The strikes near the town of Cukurca in a mountainous part of the border province of Hakkari come after a series of attacks launched by the PKK, which has fought a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in southeastern Turkey. A ceasefire broke down just over a year ago. (Reporting by Ece Toksabay; Editing by Nick Tattersall) </s> ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s state-run news agency says Turkish jets have struck 18 Syrian Kurdish militia targets north of the Syrian city of the embattled city of Aleppo, killing as many as 200.

Anadolu Agency says Thursday the raids targeted the Maarraat Umm Hawsh region in northern Syria. The agency said between 160 and 200 militia fighters were killed in the raid.

It says the air strikes took place late Wednesday night.

The United States considers the militia group, known as the People’s Protection Units or YPG, to be the most effect force in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria. Turkey says the group is an extension of its own outlawed Kurdish militants who have carried out a series of deadly attacks in Turkey over the past year. </s> Turkish planes bombed Kurdish fighters in Iraq’s Sinjar region and northeast Syria on Tuesday, killing at least 20 in a widening campaign against groups linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

A Turkish military statement said about 70 militants were killed in the operations inside the two neighbouring states.

The air strikes in Syria targeted the YPG, a key component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which are backed by the US and have been closing in on the Islamic State bastion of Raqqa.

The Turkish raids showed the challenges facing US-led attempts to defeat Islamic State, also known as Isis, in Syria and risk increasing tension between Nato allies Washington and Ankara over Kurdish combatants who have been crucial in driving back the jihadists.

A US military officer accompanied YPG commanders on a tour of the sites hit near Syria’s frontier with Turkey later on Tuesday, a Reuters witness said, demonstrating the close partnership.

The YPG said in a statement its headquarters in Mount Karachok near Syria’s frontier with Turkey had been hit, including a media centre, a local radio station, communications facilities and military institutions.

“As a result of the barbaric strikes by the Turkish warplanes at dawn today against the YPG centre . . . 20 fighters were martyred and 18 others wounded, three of them critically,” said spokesman Redur Xelil.

Ilham Ahmed, a senior Kurdish politician who co-chairs the political wing of the SDF, said they wanted the US to provide aerial protection against Turkey.

The Turkish military said the two regions it struck around 2am (11pm GMT) had become “terror hubs” and the aim of the bombardment was to prevent the PKK sending weapons and explosives for attacks inside Turkey.

Designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the US and the European Union, the PKK has waged a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state for Kurdish autonomy. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict, most of them Kurds.

Turkish security sources said 13 PKK militants had been killed on Tuesday in operations backed by the air force in the largely Kurdish southeast of Turkey. Two Turkish soldiers were also killed when a roadside handmade bomb planted by the PKK blew up in Sirnak province.

Turkey has regularly bombed the mountainous border area between Iraq and Turkey where PKK militants are based since a ceasefire broke down in July 2015. But Tuesday’s raid was the first time Turkish forces have targeted its affiliate in the northwestern Sinjar area.

The PKK established a presence in Sinjar, bordering Syria, after coming to the aid of its Yazidi population when Islamic State militants overran the area in the summer of 2014 and killed and captured thousands of members of the minority faith.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he will not allow Sinjar, around 115km (70 miles) from the Turkish border, to become a “new Qandil”, referring to a PKK stronghold in Iraq near the borders with Turkey and Iran.

The presence of a PKK affiliate in Sinjar is also rejected by Kurdish authorities who run their own autonomous region in northern Iraq and enjoy good relations with Turkey.

Five members of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces, which are also deployed in Sinjar, were killed, and nine wounded in one of the Turkish air strikes, according to the peshmerga ministry, apparently by accident.

It called the attack “unacceptable” but blamed the PKK for being there and demanded the group withdraw from Sinjar. </s> ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish warplanes struck Kurdish militant targets in two areas of southeast Turkey overnight, killing 11 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters, the army said on Tuesday.

One air operation was conducted near the Syrian border, in the Dargecit district of Mardin province, where warplanes destroyed two gun positions and killed eight militants believed to be preparing for an attack, the army said in a statement.

It said three other PKK members were killed and a cave destroyed in air strikes in the countryside of Hakkari province, which borders Iraq and Iran.

The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 and more than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have been killed in the conflict. It is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

A ceasefire between the Turkish state and the militants broke down in July 2015 and the southeast subsequently saw some of the worst violence since the insurgency began. </s> ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish warplanes carried out airstrikes on Tuesday against suspected Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq and in northeastern Syria, the military said, in a bid to prevent militants from smuggling fighters and weapons into Turkey.

The attack killed at least 18 Syrian Kurdish troops, according to a monitoring group, as well as five members of the Iraqi Kurdish militia known as the peshmerga and drew swift condemnation from Baghdad.

Syrian Kurdish forces said the strikes hit a media center, a local radio station, a communication headquarters and some military posts, killing an undetermined number of fighters in Syria’s northeastern Hassakeh province. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the Syrian war, also reported the strikes on the media and military targets in Karachok.

According to the Observatory, the airstrikes killed 18 members of the Syrian Kurdish militia known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG. The Observatory had earlier said only three were killed. Kurdish officials were not immediately available for comment.

Ankara says members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, are finding sanctuaries in neighboring Iraq and Syria, among those countries’ own Kurdish minorities.

A Turkish military statement said the pre-dawn strikes hit targets on the Sinjar Mountain in northern Iraq and also in a mountainous region in Syria. It said the operations were conducted to prevent infiltration of Kurdish rebels, weapons, ammunition and explosives from those areas into Turkey.

A Turkish security official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with Turkish government protocol, said the airstrikes are believed to have killed around 200 Kurdish militants, including some senior commanders. The claim could not be independently confirmed.

Iraq’s Foreign Ministry denounced the strikes as a “violation against Iraq’s sovereignty” and called on the international community to put an end to such “interferences” by Turkey.

“Any operation that is carried out by Turkish government without any coordination with the Iraqi government is totally rejected,” Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, Ahmad Jamal, told The Associated Press.

He warned against a Turkish military operation in northern Iraq, saying it won’t “bring a solution, but will instead complicate the issue and destabilize northern Iraq.”

Although Turkey regularly carries out airstrikes against PKK targets in northern Iraq, this was the first time it has struck the Sinjar region. Turkey has long claimed that the area was becoming a hotbed for PKK rebels.

Sinjar Mayor Mahma Khalil said the strikes started at around 2:30 a.m. and killed five members of Iraqi Kurdish forces known as peshmerga, and wounded nine. Khalil said he was not aware if there were casualties among PKK troops.

Last year, Turkey sent troops into Syria to back Syrian opposition fighters in the battle against the Islamic State group and also to curb what is perceives as the territorial expansion of U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces, which it claims are affiliated with the PKK. The Kurdish group, which has led an insurgency in southeast Turkey since 1984, is considered a terror organization by Turkey and its allies.

In its statement, the military vowed to press ahead with operations against the PKK both inside Turkey and across its borders until the “last terrorist is eliminated.”

The Syrian Kurdish forces denounced Tuesday’s strikes on their positions as “treacherous,” accusing Turkey of undermining the anti-terrorism fight.

Aside from aspirations for autonomy, the Kurdish group in Syria is part of the U.S.-led international coalition against the Islamic State militants who seized large swaths of Syria and Iraq in 2014. Since then, the IS has suffered major setbacks at the hands of the coalition, losing large chunks of the territory the Sunni militant group once held. The Syrian Kurdish forces, backed by the U.S.-led coalition, are closing in on IS de facto capital, the city of Raqqa.

“By this attack, Turkey is trying to undermine Raqqa operation, give (IS) time to reorganize and put in danger lives of thousands of” displaced, the YPG said on its Twitter account.

Associated Press Writers Sarah El Deeb in Beirut and Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report. </s> ANKARA (Reuters) - Four Turkish soldiers were killed and two others wounded in two separate attacks by Kurdish militants on Saturday, the Turkish defense ministry said, adding that the army had retaliated in both cases.

One Turkish soldier was killed and another was wounded in an attack by the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in the mainly Kurdish-controlled northern Syrian region of Tel Rifaat, the defense ministry said in a statement.

The attack took place in a region where Turkey carried out a cross-border operation dubbed Euphrates Shield in 2016, aimed at driving Islamic State militants and the YPG from its border with Syria, the ministry said.

Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar was later quoted by the state-run Anadolu news agency as saying the military had killed 23 militants in retaliation for the attacks from Syria.

A Turkish security official told Reuters that the army was carrying out small operations to eliminate threats from the Tel Rifaat region, but that it could launch “a bigger operation” if necessary.

Separately, three Turkish soldiers were killed and another wounded in the southeastern Turkish province of Hakkari, which borders northern Iraq, after Kurdish militants shelled the region, the defense ministry said in a separate statement.

It said the military had returned fire and launched a cross-border operation in the region backed by fighter jets to destroy militant targets.

Akar said the military had killed five other militants in the cross-border operation into northern Iraq, and a total of 28 militants in response to the two attacks.

“We neutralized the 28 terrorists who carried out the attacks. Our operations both inside and outside our country continue with great determination,” Akar said, according to Anadolu.

Turkey’s military has regularly carried out air strikes against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq. It also shelled YPG positions in the Tel Rifaat region earlier this year, saying this was in response to YPG fire.

Tel Rifaat is controlled by Kurdish-led forces and is located some 20 km east of Afrin, which has been under the control of Turkey and its Free Syrian Army (FSA) allies since an operation last year to drive out the YPG.

Turkey, which has long been one of the main backers of rebel groups fighting against Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, has conducted patrols with Russia, one of Assad’s main allies, in northern areas under agreements reached last year.

In March, the defense ministry said Turkish and Russian forces had carried out the first “independent and coordinated” patrols in Tel Rifaat.
Turkish fighter jets kill 19 suspected Kurdish militants in strikes on the Gara region in northern Iraq.