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Yesterday, around 300-400 PKK terrorists crossed the Turkish-Iraqi border and launched an attack to 3 different spots in the city of Hakkari, bordering Iraq. They killed 24 of our soldiers, injured 18 more and escaped to Iraqi soil afterwards.
There was massive protestations all over Turkey, 1000s marched in the streets and Turkish army started an air-backed ground operation to northern Iraq this morning, with around 10.000 commandos on the ground.
I don't think AKP government can start this operation without the permission and allowance of US officials. So, i guess that this will be a limited operation in the end, maybe clearing few shelters and hiding spots of PKK members close to the Turkish border and thats it. I don't expect more than that in reality but this will surely be enough to take the heat and anger out of the Turkish people.
To be able to eradicate PKK, we have to crush kurdish regime in northern Iraq who supports terrorism in Iran, Syria, Turkey and Iraq by recruiting kurdish youth for PKK and supporting them in every possible way. Ofc this is something undesirable for USA/CIA and impossible to realize by the AKP government.
There was massive protestations all over Turkey, 1000s marched in the streets and Turkish army started an air-backed ground operation to northern Iraq this morning, with around 10.000 commandos on the ground.
About 10,000 elite Turkish soldiers were taking part in a ground offensive against Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkey and across the border in Iraq on Thursday, making it the nation's largest attack on the insurgents in more than three years, the military said.
The offensive was began Wednesday after Kurdish rebels carried out raids near the Turkey-Iraq border that killed 24 Turkish soldiers and wounded 18, the insurgents' deadliest one-day attacks against the military since the mid-1990s.
The military said in a statement Thursday that 22 battalions, or about 10,000 soldiers, were taking part in the offensive in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq, but it did not say how many were in each country.
NTV television said most of the troops were believed to be in Iraq.
It was Turkey's largest such offensive since February 2008, when thousands of ground forces staged a weeklong offensive into Iraq on snow-covered mountains.
The military said the soldiers in the current operation are commandos, special forces and paramilitary special forces — making it an elite force trained in guerrilla warfare. They are being reinforced by F-16 and F-4 warplanes, Super Cobra helicopter gunships and surveillance drones.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan refused to share details of the military's offensive. The military only said the offensive was concentrated in five separate areas it did not identify.
"Our goal is to achieve results with this operation," Erdogan told a nationally televised news conference. "The military is determinedly carrying out this (operation), both from the air and the ground."
The military said the offensive was launched because the rebels had staged Wednesday's deadly simultaneous attacks on eight separate targets, including military and police outposts.
In its first comment since those attacks and the start of Turkey's offensive, Iraq's government on Thursday condemned the rebel attacks and promised to stop them from using Iraqi territory for future attacks against Turkey.
"The Iraqi government stresses again that Iraq will not be a haven or a shelter to any foreign armed and terrorist group," the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website, adding that both Baghdad and the regional Kurdish government in northern Iraq "are committed to secure the borders" to prevent the repetition of such attacks.
A senior Iraqi Kurdish official, Nechirvan Barzani, was in Ankara and expected to be received by Erdogan shortly.
The Kurdish rebel attack outraged many Turks and fueled nationalist sentiment. Thousands of high school students, carrying Turkish flags, marched in the streets of the Turkish capital on Thursday.
"Tooth for tooth, blood for blood, vengeance!" students chanted in support of the military as they marched through the affluent Tunali Hilmi district. At one point, the students stopped traffic to sing the national anthem as some shopkeepers joined them and passers-by stood still in respect.
Turkey's Kurdish rebel conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since the insurgents took up arms for autonomy in the country's Kurdish-dominated southeast in 1984.
Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara and Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad, Iraq contributed.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...7df4c4a5ec0424
The offensive was began Wednesday after Kurdish rebels carried out raids near the Turkey-Iraq border that killed 24 Turkish soldiers and wounded 18, the insurgents' deadliest one-day attacks against the military since the mid-1990s.
The military said in a statement Thursday that 22 battalions, or about 10,000 soldiers, were taking part in the offensive in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq, but it did not say how many were in each country.
NTV television said most of the troops were believed to be in Iraq.
It was Turkey's largest such offensive since February 2008, when thousands of ground forces staged a weeklong offensive into Iraq on snow-covered mountains.
The military said the soldiers in the current operation are commandos, special forces and paramilitary special forces — making it an elite force trained in guerrilla warfare. They are being reinforced by F-16 and F-4 warplanes, Super Cobra helicopter gunships and surveillance drones.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan refused to share details of the military's offensive. The military only said the offensive was concentrated in five separate areas it did not identify.
"Our goal is to achieve results with this operation," Erdogan told a nationally televised news conference. "The military is determinedly carrying out this (operation), both from the air and the ground."
The military said the offensive was launched because the rebels had staged Wednesday's deadly simultaneous attacks on eight separate targets, including military and police outposts.
In its first comment since those attacks and the start of Turkey's offensive, Iraq's government on Thursday condemned the rebel attacks and promised to stop them from using Iraqi territory for future attacks against Turkey.
"The Iraqi government stresses again that Iraq will not be a haven or a shelter to any foreign armed and terrorist group," the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website, adding that both Baghdad and the regional Kurdish government in northern Iraq "are committed to secure the borders" to prevent the repetition of such attacks.
A senior Iraqi Kurdish official, Nechirvan Barzani, was in Ankara and expected to be received by Erdogan shortly.
The Kurdish rebel attack outraged many Turks and fueled nationalist sentiment. Thousands of high school students, carrying Turkish flags, marched in the streets of the Turkish capital on Thursday.
"Tooth for tooth, blood for blood, vengeance!" students chanted in support of the military as they marched through the affluent Tunali Hilmi district. At one point, the students stopped traffic to sing the national anthem as some shopkeepers joined them and passers-by stood still in respect.
Turkey's Kurdish rebel conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since the insurgents took up arms for autonomy in the country's Kurdish-dominated southeast in 1984.
Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara and Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad, Iraq contributed.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...7df4c4a5ec0424
I don't think AKP government can start this operation without the permission and allowance of US officials. So, i guess that this will be a limited operation in the end, maybe clearing few shelters and hiding spots of PKK members close to the Turkish border and thats it. I don't expect more than that in reality but this will surely be enough to take the heat and anger out of the Turkish people.
To be able to eradicate PKK, we have to crush kurdish regime in northern Iraq who supports terrorism in Iran, Syria, Turkey and Iraq by recruiting kurdish youth for PKK and supporting them in every possible way. Ofc this is something undesirable for USA/CIA and impossible to realize by the AKP government.
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