Turkey says 200 rebel Kurd targets hit

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071225/ap_on_re_mi_ea/turkey_kurds&printer=1;_ylt=ArlmOZIIklujV4hXbjuyERUUewgF

Turkey says 200 rebel Kurd targets hit

By C. ONUR ANT, Associated Press Writer
18 minutes ago



Turkish airstrikes and artillery have hit more than 200 Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq since Dec. 16, killing hundreds of insurgents, the military said Tuesday.

Up to 175 rebels were killed on Dec. 16 alone, the military said in a statement posted on its Web site. The military said other hideouts were hit in a cross-border airstrike on Saturday, followed by artillery fire.

Iraqi officials said the Dec. 16 operation — the first confirmed by Turkey since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 — violated Iraqi sovereignty.

That operation was followed by an incursion by ground forces, who spotted a group of Kurdish rebels preparing to cross into Turkey.

The last confirmed offensive across the Turkish-Iraqi border came this past Saturday, when Turkish airplanes entered Iraqi air space and bombed suspected rebel targets.

In an earlier statement posted on its Web site, the military said it was hard to determine precisely how many rebels died but put the figure in hundreds.

The U.S. has been providing intelligence to Turkey on the Kurdish rebels since a Nov. 5 meeting between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Bush, who said the rebel group was an enemy of the U.S., Turkey and Iraq.

A coordination center has been set up in Ankara so Turks, Iraqis and Americans can share information. A Turkish air strike in Iraq on Dec. 16 was due to intelligence shared by Washington.

The rebel group Kurdistan Workers' Party, also known as PKK, has waged a war for autonomy in parts of Turkey near Syria, Iraq and Iran since 1984. The fighting has cost tens of thousands of lives. The U.S., the European Union and Turkey consider the PKK a terrorist organization.

Turkey has said it would not tolerate more PKK attacks, after a string of deadly ambushes killed dozens of troops in the past months. In October, the Parliament allowed the government to send troops into Iraq to hit rebel bases there.

The Cabinet then authorized the military to hit rebel targets in Iraq.
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