Turkish Army hits PKK targets in northern Iraq amid tensions with Baghdad

The Turkish Armed Forces staged a cross-border aerial campaign in northern Iraq to hit outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets in the Kandil Mountains amid tensions with the central government in Baghdad over Turkey’s deployment of troops near Mosul.

According to a statement by the Turkish General Staff, 10 F-16 fighter jets launched an attack between 10 p.m. and 10:50 p.m. on Dec. 8.

“PKK targets in the Kandil, Hakurk, Zap and Avaşîn-Basyan regions in northern Iraq were destroyed in an aerial campaign,” the statement said.

Tensions have recently escalated between Turkey and Iraq, as the central Iraqi government has slammed the recent of additional Turkish troops to the camp, vowing to take its case to the United Nations if Turkey did not withdraw.

A much-anticipated counter-offensive by Iraqi forces to retake Mosul from ISIL has been repeatedly postponed because they are tied down in fighting elsewhere.

Iraq has urged the international community to provide more weapons and training in its battle against the militants, but rejects most forms of direct intervention, mistrusting the intentions of foreign powers.

A small number of Turkish trainers were already at the camp near Mosul before the latest deployment on Dec. 3 in order to train the Hashid Watani (national mobilization), a force made up of mainly former Iraqi police or Sunni Arab origin and volunteers from Mosul.

Meanwhile, Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations on Dec. 8 appeared to play down a dispute between Baghdad and Ankara over the deployment of Turkish troops in northern Iraq, saying bilateral talks between the neighboring states to end the row were proceeding favorably.

"We are solving it between Baghdad and Ankara bilaterally," Iraqi Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim told reporters after Russia raised the issue of Turkey's deployment during a closed-door meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

"We have not yet escalated it to the Security Council or to the United Nations," he said, adding that Moscow had not consulted with Baghdad before raising the issue in the council.

"For us, what is helpful is the bilateral discussion going on right now between Baghdad and Ankara, and it's going extremely well,"

But Alhakim reiterated that Iraq wanted the Turkish troops withdrawn from its territory immediately, saying the deployment was "illegal," and a violation of the United Nations charter...
  hurriyetdailynews.com
9/12/15
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