Turkish jets bombed several villages in northern Iraq early Sunday in the most aggressive action in years against Kurdish rebels who take sanctuary in the Kurdistan border region of Iraq.
Local officials said at least one civilian was killed and several wounded. The pro-Kurdistan Workers’ Party Firat news agency said five guerrillas and two civilians were killed and that many of the damaged buildings were schools and homes.
The targeted towns included Suradeh, a hamlet of about 30 homes nestled in the Qandil mountains more than 50 miles from the Turkish border. On Sunday afternoon, residents who had sought shelter in frigid mountain caves during the overnight bombardment returned to a scene of damaged homes and dead livestock. Many were packing up and leaving in fear of additional attacks.
“My youngest daughter is still crying and saying, ‘Mama; I’m scared,'” said Muneera Khalid, who sought shelter in a cave with her husband and three children, age 7, 10 and 14. It took them a half-hour to reach the cave, going by foot in the dark after the first air strikes began early Sunday morning.
“Why is the Turkish army bombing our village?” she said.
In Turkey, news reports said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the bombings as “a comprehensive operation against camps of a terrorist organization in the north of Iraq.”
He warned of more military assaults against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has fought Turkey since 1984 for a separate Kurdish state.
The United States considers the organization a terrorist group, and during a visit to Iraq earlier this month, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said the U.S. shared Turkey’s goal of ending PKK activities “once and for all.”
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The Reuters news agency quoted Turkey’s top military commander, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, as saying the United States had approved the raid. Washington has denied Turkish claims it gave the green light to previous raids, and a State Department official would not comment on the latest report.
A Turkish military statement said the strikes were aimed at PKK targets, but local residents insisted that civilians bore the brunt of the attacks.