By Xinhua
Baghdad : The U.S. military in Iraq said Friday it was aware of Turkey’s latest cross-border operation in Iraq against the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK).
The U.S. military said it “is aware that Turkish ground forces have entered into northern Iraq, for what we understand is an operation of limited duration to specifically target PKK terrorists.”
“Turkey has given its assurances it will do everything possible to avoid collateral damage to innocent civilians or Kurdish infrastructure,” it said.
However, an Iraqi security source told Xinhua that he was not aware of an incursion, while confirming that about 10,000 Turkish troops were on the border and the Turkish warplane and artillery had pounded some border areas in the Duhuk province.
He also said Massoud Barzani, head of the regional Kurdish administration was in Duhuk to hold meetings with his Peshmerga troops to discuss about the tense situation, adding that about 2,000 Peshmerga fighters have set out from the neighboring Arbil province to Duhuk.
The Turkish military said Friday that it launched air strike and shelling on Thursday on the PKK targets in northern Iraq.
It sent ground troops in the region Thursday evening and “will return to Turkey after it achieves the planned targets,” the statement said.
Turkish private NTV television said Friday that 10,000 troops were taking part in the cross-border offensive, which follows periodic air raids on suspected hideouts of the PKK rebel group in Iraq.
The Turkish troops have entered 10 km inside of the north of Iraq, added NTV.
Turkish National Security Council said Thursday that cross-border operations against the PKK would continue as long as necessary.
Iraqi media reported exchange of fire was going on between the Turkish troops and PKK members in three areas inside Iraq.
Two Turkish soldiers had been killed and eight others wounded, the Voice of Iraq (VOI) news agency reported, citing a PKK official.
A high-level official in the Kurdish force told VOI that operations were going on inside the Turkish borders.
The PKK, listed by the United States and Turkey as a terrorist group, took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the southeast of the country. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the over-two-decade conflict.
The Turkish military was authorized last November to enter into northern Iraq to purse PKK members. But such a move has been rare as the U.S. — Turkey’s major ally, is worried that a major incursion would destabilize the Kurdish region, which has been spared of the violence in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.