Turkish jets bombed bases of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) just inside Iraq’s northern border, according to an August 25 Reuters dispatch. In July Ankara threatened to send thousands of troops into Iraq if Baghdad and Washington did not take action against the PKK bases.

The PKK was formed in 1978 by radical Kurdish students at Ankara university who were attracted to Maoism. It has carried on a decades-long guerilla campaign against Turkish troops and police.

Ankara has accused Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani of providing arms, shelter, and logistics to the PKK to launch attacks on Turkish security forces from bases in Iraq’s northern autonomous region known as Iraqi Kurdistan. Barzani is the central leader of Iraq’s Kurdish Democratic Party and president of the Iraqi Kurdistan regional government. Ankara also said up to 5,000 PKK guerillas are in bases in the Qandil mountains along the border between Iraq and Turkey.

The U.S.-backed Iraqi government responded by shutting down PKK offices in Baghdad. Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, telephoned Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Erdogan, to give his government’s assurances to Ankara, according to the Turkish Weekly Journal.

Iraq’s vice-president, Tariq al-Hashimi, pledged to end PKK operations against the Turkish government launched from northern Iraq but stressed that all political means for a solution should be exhausted before resorting to armed conflict.

The U.S. State Department is sending a former Air Force general as a special envoy to help coordinate operations against the PKK, reported AP. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the general will have responsibility for coordinating engagement with the governments of Turkey and Iraq to eliminate the threat of the PKK. However, Washington has also repeatedly warned Ankara against sending any troops into northern Iraq.

The governments of Turkey and Iran have used tanks and artillery to shell PKK bases, according to the August 18 issue of the British Guardian. The report also said that the Kurdistan Free Life Party, described as a sister party in Iran of the PKK, has stepped up attacks against Iranian troops in Kurdish areas, killing eight.

Mustafa Sayed Qadir, a senior member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), said the shelling was aimed at bases of Kurdish groups that are fighting for independence from Iran and Turkey, according to the New York Times. The PUK along with the Kurdish Democratic Party are the governing parties in Iraqi Kurdistan.

A spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government condemned the shelling and urged Baghdad to demand that its neighbors respect its sovereignty.

Meanwhile, 15 Turkish police officers were killed in clashes with PKK militias in August. Ankara announced the arrest of a PKK leader in Turkey in connection with five bombings of tourist resorts. Three people were killed and dozens injured in the attacks.

A group calling itself the Kurdistan Liberation Hawks, and believed to be a split-off from the PKK, took responsibility for the bombings, reported Reuters. The PKK has condemned the attacks.
 
 
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