Ankara (RIA Novosti) : The Turkish Army has started a military operation against some 60 Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, the Turkish General Staff reported.
The military offensive against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) separatists started Saturday, a day after Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan authorized the military to conduct a cross-border operation against the rebels in northern Iraq.
In October, the Turkish parliament approved a resolution giving the government the go-ahead to order a cross-border military operation against PKK militants in northern Iraq.
But analysts earlier said the resolution did not mean the operation against an estimated 3,500 PKK separatists hiding in Iraq was imminent.
Turkey’s military had repeatedly said they were ready for the operation and were only waiting for an order to start the attack. The country has mobilised around 100,000 troops on the border with Iraq for possible action against the Kurdish rebels.
Turkey, a NATO member with EU membership aspirations, has sought to end attacks from northern Iraq carried out by PKK rebels fighting for a homeland they call Kurdistan in Turkey’s northwest, touching the borders of Iran, Iraq and Syria.
In over two decades of Kurdish armed homeland movement, at least 40,000 people have been killed. The PKK has been placed on terror list by the US, the European Union (EU) and some other European countries.
The US earlier advised against military action in the relatively stable region of Iraq, but has agreed to share military intelligence with Turkey on the PKK.