* Major operation enters its third day
* One Turkish soldier killed in initial clashes
* Offensive underscores one of bloodiest summers in years
By Seyhmus Cakan
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Sept 7 (Reuters) – Turkish soldiers have
killed 26 Kurdish rebels in two days in an offensive involving
over 2,000 troops, as well as F-16 fighter planes operating on
both sides of the Turkey-Iraq border, security sources said on
Friday.
The operation against separatist rebels from the Kurdistan
Workers’ Party (PKK) began on Wednesday night in Sirnak, a
southeasterly province bordering Iraq and Syria and the site of
frequent clashes between rebels and Turkish troops.
This summer has been one of the bloodiest in Turkey since
the PKK took up arms against the state in 1984 with the aim of
carving out a Kurdish state.
Turkish security sources told Reuters 26 militants had been
killed since the start of the offensive.
“The intense operation is continuing,” the sources said.
The operation has largely focused on Kato mountain, a remote
area of Sirnak, but Turkish security sources as well as Iraqi
residents said planes had bombed areas inside northern Iraq’s
semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
A Reuters witness said he had seen several F-16 planes take
off from Diyarbakir air base on Thursday night and Friday
morning. Diyarbakir is the main city in Turkey’s predominantly
Kurdish southeast.
There were no reports that Turkish ground troops had crossed
the border into northern Iraq, although Turkey has sent soldiers
into the region in the past.
PKK ATTACKS ON THE RISE
Turkey has stepped up air operations on suspected PKK rebels
in northern Iraq over the past year after an increase in PKK
attacks, and the raids have fuelled tension between Ankara and
the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Security sources said one Turkish soldier had been killed
during clashes with PKK militants at the start of the offensive
on Wednesday night.
On Sunday, PKK fighters killed 10 members of Turkey’s
security services in simultaneous attacks on four state and
security installations in Sirnak.
More than 40,000 people have been killed since the start of
the conflict between the Turkish state and the PKK, which is
considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States
and the European Union.
On Dec. 29 last year, Turkish warplanes killed 35 civilian
smugglers in northern Iraq when they mistook them for Kurdish
militants, sparking clashes between hundreds of stone-throwing
protesters and police in Diyarbakir.
In the 15 months to August, some 800 people were killed,
including about 500 PKK fighters, more than 200 security
personnel and about 85 civilians, according to estimates by the
International Crisis Group think-tank.
Ankara has linked the surge in violence to the unrest in
neighbouring Syria and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has accused
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad of arming the PKK militants.
Turkey has raised the possibility of military intervention
in Syria if the PKK were to launch attacks from Syrian soil. On
Wednesday, the military conducted a major military exercise on
the Syrian border, a clear warning to Damascus.
