Officials: Turkish gunships raid Kurd towns

[unhappycamper]

Officials: Turkish gunships raid Kurd towns
By Yahya Barzanji - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Nov 13, 2007 16:13:10 EST

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq — Turkish helicopters swooped into Iraqi territory Tuesday, Iraqi officials said, firing on villages in renewed pressure to dislodge Kurdish guerrillas from bases in northern Iraq used to stage cross-border raids.

In the latest attack, Kurdish rebels killed four Turkish soldiers Tuesday on the Turkish side of the border.

A spokesman for the Kurdish regional administration, Jamal Abdullah, denied the helicopter attack report but said two Turkish warplanes dropped flares Monday in the mountains near the Iraqi town of Zakhu.

But Col. Hussein Tamir, an Iraqi army officer who supervises border guards, said the Turkish helicopters opened fire before dawn on abandoned villages northeast of Zakhu, an Iraqi Kurdish town near the border with Turkey. There were no casualties, he said.

A Turkish government official confirmed the helicopter raids and said they were directed at suspected hideouts of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which has been fighting for autonomy for Turkish Kurds since 1984 in a conflict that has killed nearly 40,000 people.

The official said more raids could be expected within a few days. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/11/ap_turkey_071113/