Pat Dollard | Young Americans

An Iraq Media report follows this AP story.

(AP) -The Turkish army launched a ground offensive into northern Iraq to hunt down Kurdish rebels, drawing an angry response Friday from Iraqi leaders and a call for restraint from Washington.

With Iraqi leaders summoning Turkey’s charge d’affaires in Baghdad to protest against the operation, Turkish leaders were quick to give assurances about the nature and scope of the incursion.

“The target, purpose, size and parameters of this operation are limited,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. “Our armed forces will come back in the shortest time possible as soon as they achieve their objectives.”

It was the second such incursion confirmed by the military since October, when the government won parliamentary approval to enter Iraq to attack Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants based there.

Turkey charges that an estimated 4,000 PKK rebels are holed up in northern Iraq and use the region as a springboard for attacks on Turkish territory as part of the separatist campaign they launched in 1984.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki telephoned Erdogan after the latest incursion was launched to urge him of “the need to respect Iraq sovereign authority,” Maliki’s spokesman said in Baghdad.

The Turkish army said the incursion started late Thursday after eight hours of air and artillery strikes on camps of the outlawed (PKK) in the mountainous, snow-bound region.

“Following this successful offensive, a cross-border land operation backed by the Air Force was launched at 7:00 pm (1700 GMT),” said a statement posted on the general staff Internet site.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari estimated that “hundreds, rather than thousands” of troops were involved in the operation, during which he said Turkish soldiers had destroyed five bridges near the border.

“We don’t expect that a large incursion is taking place, as it’s a remote and inhospitable region,” Zebari told AFP. “The area wouldn’t sustain a large number of troops.”

The United States, which is supplying Turkey with intelligence on PKK movements, said it had been notified of the incursion beforehand and urged its NATO ally to exercise restraint.

“We were notified and we urged the Turkish government to limit their operations to precise targeting of the PKK, to limit the scope and duration of their operations…,” said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel.

In Brussels, the European Commission asked Turkey to “refrain from any disproportionate military action” and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Turkey’s action was “not the best response.”

Britain urged Turkey to withdraw its forces “as early as possible” and avoid harming civilians, while Germany warned Ankara of the “risk of destabilisation.”

The Turkish army insisted it “attaches special importance to Iraq’s territorial integrity and stability” and said the incursion targeted only the PKK.

“It is believed that the operation will prevent the region from being used by the terrorists as a permanent safe haven and thus contribute to domestic peace and stability in Iraq,” it said in a statement.

Since October, the Turkish army has massed tens of thousands of troops along its border with Iraq and conducted several air strikes on rebel targets since December 16.

On December 18, the army said it carried out a small land incursion to stop PKK rebels infiltrating Turkey.

The Anatolia news agency reported that warplanes took off from a military base in Diyarbakir, southeast Turkey, on Friday and that helicopters were seen flying over the border.

Troop reinforcements are being deployed close to the border and tanks were seen moving toward northern Iraq at the Habur border crossing, the agency said.

PKK spokesman Ahmet Danis said “a large number” of Turkish soldiers were moving in the area where the borders of Iran, Turkey and Iraq meet.

He also claimed that the fighting had left two Turkish soldiers dead and eight wounded and said there were no PKK casualties.

The violent PKK campaign for self-rule in southeast Turkey has claimed more than 37,000 lives so far.

Iraq Media:

Baghdad, Fe 22, (VOI)- Iraqi foreign ministry said on Friday that Undersecretary Labied Abbawi summoned Turkish charge d’ affaires in Baghdad and notified him of the Iraqi government’s protest over the Turkish artillery shelling of a number of residential regions in Duhuk province.

“The Iraqi senior official informed the Turkish diplomat of the Iraqi government’s protest over the recent Turkish shelling and the destruction of a vital bridge in Kurdistan,” the foreign ministry said in a statement received by Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq (VOI).

“Abbawi voiced the Iraqi government’s concern over the new Turkish massing on the borders between the two countries, asserting that such acts could deteriorate the security situation in the region and affect its stability,” the statement said.
“Any military penetration by the Turkish army will be an aggression against Iraq’s sovereignty,” the official underlined.
He asserted his country’s keenness to boost relations with Turkey in various domains, underlining Iraq’s commitment to fight terrorism.

Eyewitnesses said the area where the Turkish troops advanced was Kali Balinda, which separates Turkey from Iraq and where the Peshmerga has no presence.

Earlier on Friday source from the Kurdistan Workers Party said a field combat was taking place between Turkish soldiers and PKK fighters in the border area of Bazia, which comes under air attacks by Turkish warplanes.

“Two Turkish soldiers were killed and eight others wounded in the combat that broke out on Thursday after 10,000 Turkish soldiers advanced under air cover to strike PKK positions,” Ahmed Deniz, the PKK’s foreign relations official, told VOI.

“Fighting is going on in the border areas of al-Zab, Khwakark and Khenira and the Turkish bombardment is also continuing,” Deniz added.

The Turkish army staff had announced on its official website that the Turkish forces waged an attack across the Iraqi borders on Thursday evening with air backing and would return to their bases as soon as possible after attaining their objectives.

A high-level official in the Kurdish border forces of the Peshmerga, however, told VOI “operations are now going on inside the Turkish borders,” denying any advancing into Iraqi borders.

Duhuk lies 50 km south of the Iraqi-Turkish borders and 460 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

The crisis on the Iraqi-Turkish borders flared up recently after the PKK, or Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan in Kurdish, which is banned in Turkey, escalated operations against Turkish forces. Fighters of the PKK had killed, wounded and captured more than 40 Turkish soldiers.

After the PKK escalations, the Turkish government received the thumbs up from parliament to carry out a military operation against the PKK inside Iraqi Kurdistan region territories.