Kurdish civilians killed in Turkish air strikes on PKK rebels in Iraq

ERBIL-Hewlêr, ntv / REUTERS – 8.11.2012  : Two Iraqi Kurdish civilians were killed and three wounded in a Turkish air strike in Iraqi Kurdistan region during the latest operation targeting Kurdish PKK separatist rebels sheltering there, a Kurdistan official said on Wednesday.

The strike on Tuesday hit a village near Rania, close to the remote mountains of Kurdistan in northern Iraq where rebels from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have been based in their 28-year-old guerrilla war against Turkish forces. “Two civilians were killed and three more wounded in a village in Rania by a Turkish air strike,” said Jabbar Yawar, secretary general for Kurdistan’s Peshmerga military forces. The past few months have seen some of the heaviest fighting between Turkish forces and the PKK since the militants took up arms in 1984. Turkish fighter jets and attack helicopters have bombarded the rebels on both sides of the Iraqi border.

Broadcaster NTV said Turkish commandos had gone up to 5 km (3 miles) into Iraq to target camps belonging to Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants. It said the offensive, which followed a Turkish air operation in the area, was finished.