Turkish Warplanes Bomb Kurdish Rebel Targets in Northern Iraq

[Hissyspit]

Source: Associated Press

Turkish warplanes bomb Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq

The Associated PressPublished: July 27, 2008

ANKARA, Turkey: Turkish warplanes on Sunday bombed 12 Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq, the military said. The fighter jets attacked the rebel targets on Mount Qandil, on the Iraqi-Iranian border, where the rebel leadership is believed to be based, the military said in a statement posted on its official Web site.

All planes returned to their bases safely and the military was working to determine possible rebel casualties in the raids that began at midnight, the statement said.

The pro-Kurdish news agency Firat, which frequently carries rebel statements, confirmed the raids, saying the bombing campaign lasted for two hours. The agency said the rebel group had not suffered any losses but claimed that the airstrikes had caused panic amid local villagers.

Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/27/europe/EU-Turkey-Kurds.php

[The Croquist]

1. I used to like the Kurds

but I'm really down on them now. They've got it better in Iraq now then they have had for a long time. They're actively trying to screw it up.

[AwareOne]

2. Our allies are at war

Turks using U.S. built planes attacking our Kurd allies defending themselves with U.S. built weapons. Man, what a defense contractors wet dream. Fund and supply both sides of a war! It's a win/win for the military industrial complex! This war for fun and profit that Bush started just couldn't be going any better for the neo-cons bank accounts.

[The Croquist]

3. I doubt the Kurds are using US weapons

Places like that prefer AK-47s for small arms fire and I'd be surprised if they have any US built anti-aircraft equipment.

[14thColony]

5. Not the same Kurds.

PKK is viewed as an outsider group by the Iraqi Kurds (KDP and PUK), who wish the PKK would just go away. Mostly the PKK use Soviet-era weapons, although they do have some old M-16A1s and HK-93s.

[Jemmons]

4. Kurds bombed by turkey - picture

<a href="" target="_blank"><img src="" border="0"/></a>

[ohio2007]

6. PKK Terror attack' in Istanbul (13 people killed more than 100 wounded) video

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a38_1217193976

kinda like the situation in Pakistan,
only slightly different


http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b23_1193498162

[Ian David]

7. "Terror attack" my ass. It's retaliation for Turkish attacks on the Kurds. n/t

[14thColony]

10. Keep in mind

that 'the Kurds' in this case are not Iraqi Kurds. The PKK is made up of about 70% Turkish Kurds and 30% Syrian Kurds, and launch daily cross-border attacks from their safe havens in northern Iraq into southeast Turkey, or (using their "Freedom Falcons") all the way to Istanbul. While I acknowledge that decades of Turkish policies towards their Kurdish minority basically caused this problem, the fact is that the PKK is a vicious, well-funded insurgent army that is willing to dabble in terrorism when it suits them, and has directly or indirectly caused over 30,000 deaths on both sides since the early 1980s. At some point it was inevitable that the Turks would have to say 'enough's enough.' Not that bombing will elimiate the PKK - the Turks launched massive ground operations in the 1990s against these camps, yet there's still a PKK today.

[freedomnorth]

8. And the Empire strikes back 24h in ADVANCE? nt.

[14thColony]

9. Strange

Mass casualty events are not really the PKK's style. They've done a few in the past, but tend to shy away from them, preferring to go after Turkish security forces. When they do hit the western Turkish cities, it's usually attacks designed to impact the tourist industry, but timed so that few people will actually be endangered. Either this wasn't the PKK, or they're changing their game.