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Posted by
Orange Blossom Special
on Fri Jun 6 07:00:14 2008
edf40wrjww2msgDetailOT:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d Sicko's pair up.
'Iran, Turkey cooperate against Kurds'
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Turkey and Iran have been carrying out coordinated strikes against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq, a top general told media Thursday in the first military confirmation of Iranian-Turkish cooperation in the fight against separatists there.
Gen. Ilker Basbug, Turkey's land forces commander, said the two countries have been sharing intelligence and planned more coordinated attacks in the future against the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and PEJAK, the group's Iranian wing.
"We are sharing intelligence with Iran, we are talking, we are coordinating," Private CNN-Turk television quoted Basbug as telling reporters on the sidelines of a security conference in Istanbul.
"When they start an operation, we do too," the general said. "They carry out an operation from the Iranian side of the border, we from the Turkish side."
The general was quoted as saying no coordinated action had taken place in the past couple of months, but that more cooperation was possible if deemed necessary.
"We haven't done it in the past one or two months, but we can do it again," he said.
I'm wondering if the worlds #1 human rights violators actions would knock gaza off the wires, or does real collective punishment not count? PS, Hear of the AP Hamas photographer kidnapped by them?!?
The PKK, which has bases in northern Iraq, has been fighting for self-rule in southeastern Turkey since 1984. Tens of thousands of people have died in the conflict.
The main rebel camp is on Mt. Qandil, which sits on the Iraqi-Iranian border.
Turkey and Iran have shelled the area. Iran alleges that rebels from PEJAK, or the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, are also based on Mt. Qandil. PEJAK is fighting for Kurdish rights in Iran.
Where's the un? And hows last month "a few months"?
Friday, 2 May 2008
Turkey's air force has launched fresh bombing raids against bases of separatist Kurds in northern Iraq.
Several Turkish jets began the raids at 2300 (2000 GMT) on Thursday, the Turkish military said. All the planes returned safely to base, it added.
The strikes targeted Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas based in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq.
Turkey has staged several cross-border raids into northern Iraq over the past few months in pursuit of the rebels.
A television station run by the Iraqi Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) said several villages in the Pishdar district were bombed by Turkish jets on Thursday night. It said there were no casualties in the villages.
In February, Ankara launched a week-long ground offensive in northern Iraq which, it said, targeted bases used by up to 3,000 Kurdish rebels as a springboard for attacks across the border.
It accuses Iraq of failing to stop the PKK - who are fighting for greater autonomy in south-eastern Turkey - from using the area as a safe haven.
So we let Turkey and Iran invade what the NYTimes calls our most sucessful nationbuilding task ever?
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