Turkish troops enter Iraq following Kurdish militant attack
Hundreds of Turkish soldiers are attacking Kurdish militants in Iraq in a retaliatory strike, after PKK fighters killed 24 Turkish soldiers.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed that air and ground operations are under way, a day after guerrilla attacks near the border with northern Iraq.
Ankara officials said about 100 fighters from the PKK, or the Kurdistan Workers Party, mounted simultaneous attacks under cover of darkness on seven remote Turkish army outposts in Hakkari province, killing 24.
In response, around 1,000 Turkish commandos are now searching the mountainous terrain several kilometres inside Iraqi territory, and have killed 21 Kurdish militants during the counter attack.
Cobra helicopter gunships have backed up ground forces, and warplanes have carried out air strikes.
On Wednesday, the United States gave its backing to Turkey.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the US “condemned” the killing of the Turkish soldiers by the PKK.
“We stand in solidarity with the Turkish people and condemn in the strongest possible terms these attacks in Turkey’s Hakkari province. You know they demonstrate a disturbing uptake in violence comparable to the level of the 1990s and again we express our deepest condolences and we stand with our Nato ally Turkey in its fight against the PKK,” Mr Toner said.
While Turkish troops backed by fighter jets and helicopter gunships pursued Kurdish rebels into Iraq and political leaders vowed to exact “great revenge”, bodies of the dead soldiers arrived at Van airbase to be flown home for funeral ceremonies and what is sure to be a national outpouring of grief and anger.
More than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have been killed since the PKK took up arms in 1984 for greater autonomy and greater rights for Turkey’s 15 million Kurds.