CIZRE (Turkey), Feb 23: Turkish troops killed 35 Kurd militants and destroyed rebel hideouts in northern Iraq on Saturday, as Iraq’s foreign minister warned the three-day-old offensive risked destabilising the region.
The death toll brings to 79 the number of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants killed since Turkey launched the offensive on Thursday evening to purge rebels from northern Iraq, a Turkish military statement said.
It added that two soldiers died in Saturday’s clashes, bringing the total losses to seven.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari warned in a BBC interview that Turkey’s ground offensive should end quickly before it destabilises the region.
“This is a limited military incursion into a remote, isolated and uninhabited region,” Zebari said.
“But if it goes on, I think it could destabilise the region, because really one mistake could lead to further escalation.” He added that the Iraqi government had only been informed “in the last minute” before the raid.
The PKK threatened retaliatory attacks in city centres inside Turkey unless the offensive is halted.
“If not, we will move the theatre of combat to the heart of Turkish cities,” PKK spokesman Ahmed Danis told AFP.
The Turkish military suggested the actual PKK death toll was higher because it did not include militants killed in bombings or by artillery fire.
“Air Force planes, helicopter gun ships and artillery fire destroyed terrorist refuge facilities... at different locations, together with large amounts of ammunition and explosives stored inside them,” the statement said.
PKK positions, including anti-aircraft defence posts in the snow-bound mountainous region, were also destroyed, it said.
“The operation is continuing with determination,” it said, adding that clashes were underway at four locations as of Saturday afternoon.
PKK leaders said 22 soldiers and two rebels had been killed, according to reports from the Firat news agency, considered a rebel mouthpiece.
Some of Saturday’s most intensive air raids targeted the Qandil Mountains, a major PKK stronghold along the Iraqi-Iranian border, and many militants were killed, unnamed sources told the semi-official Anatolia news agency.—AFP
