PKK warns of counter attack

2008-02-23 15:03

Sulaimaniyah, Iraq - The rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) threatened on Saturday to carry out guerrilla attacks inside Turkey if the Turkish army does not stop its operations in northern Iraq.

"If Turkey continues its attacks we will carry out guerrilla operations in Turkish cities, trying to avoid the civilian population," PKK spokesperson Ahmed Danis told AFP.

Ankara must "cease its attacks against Iraqi Kurdistan. If not we will move the theatre of combat to the heart of Turkish cities," he added.

Turkish troops were hunting Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq on the third day of a major ground operation on Saturday, as the Turkish military put the initial death toll from the clashes at around 50.

According to an officer from the Kurdish region's border guards, speaking on condition of anonymity, on Saturday Turkish forces bombed targets in districts around the town of Al-Amadiyah, 400 kilometres north of Baghdad.

Turkish incursions

"The shelling started at around 06:00 and continued for two hours. Helicopters were flying over the area," he said, reporting attacks in the districts of Ballo, Zio, Niro et Rikane.

Al-Amadiyah is a Kurdish mountain town around 10 kilometres south of the Turkish border near Bamerni, where Turkey maintains a military airbase inside Iraqi territory.

Turkish incursions into northern Iraq, which were frequent in the 1980s and 1990s, were usually launched with the spring thaw in the rugged, snow-bound mountains of the region when PKK militants began to cross into Turkey.

The PKK is considered a terrorist group by Ankara, the United States and the European Union.

- AFP