Turkey Launches Revenge Attacks on Kurdish Militants

[FarCenter]

Turkey has launched cross-border attacks into northern Iraq to hunt down Kurdish militants who killed more than 20 Turkish soldiers early on Wednesday morning. The situation threatens to explode into widespread violence in the region.

Turkey is in a state of shock. In the early morning hours of Wednesday, militants with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) launched an attack resulting in the death of more than 20 Turkish soldiers and police. The coordinated attack was the deadliest since 1992 and targeted nine military camps at points near the border with Iraq. The most casualties were reported at Cukurova, where 18 soldiers died.

News of the attacks has put the entire government leadership in Ankara on emergency footing. Several meetings have been cancelled, with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan calling off a planned visit to Kazakhstan, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu skipping his scheduled flight to Belgrade, and Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek cancelling an appearance in Washington. General Necdet Özel, the head of the Turkish military, took an immediate morning flight directly to the site of the attacks.

In the wake of the violence, a crisis meeting was immediately called in the prime minister's office, at the conclusion of which Erdogan announced a far-reaching offensive aimed at pursuing the PKK fighters. Already, he said, some 600 Turkish soldiers have been sent into Northern Iraq, where the militants are based.

According to the Turkish military, some 18 PKK fighters have been killed in the course of the day. In addition, the Turkish air force has bombed PKK camps in the Kandil Mountains, some 100 kilometers from the border. Turkey had been planning an operation in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq since August; just last week, the parliament in Ankara passed a law granting the government the powers necessary to order such an operation.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,792794,00.html

[Lionessa]

1. Yep, they want to be just like the USA when they grow up.

Over-reaction to these things is just out of control.