MESOP : NOW BACK TO WAR WITHOUT LIMITS & ON ALL FRONTS ? PKK: No Point in Continuing Ceasefire – Turkish jets bomb PKK guerrillas in Qandil

Basnews – 25.07.2015 – QANDIL – The People’s Defense Forces (HPG), the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) armed wing, has declared that after Turkish jets bombed PKK positions in the Iraqi Kurdistan mountains, there is no point in continuing the ceasefire and peace process. On Friday night Turkish jets struck PKK camps, the first time since a 2013 peace deal – A spokesman in Iraq for the PKK said the strikes likely spell the end of 2013 peace agreement.

“Turkey has basically ended the cease-fire,” Zagros Hiwa told The Associated Press, declining to elaborate further. He said the PKK was still assessing the damage caused by the strikes, though they didn’t appear to cause casualties.The jets hit PKK shelters, bunkers, caves, storage facilities and other “logistical points,” a statement from the Turkish prime minister’s office said. It said areas targeted included the Qandil Mountains, where the PKK’s command is based. The statement did not specify Islamic State (IS) targets that were struck in Syria in a second night of bombings, but described the airstrikes in both Syria and Iraq as being “effective.”

In a statement on Saturday, the HPG said that the Turkish army and government have broken the ceasefire agreement unilaterally.Tensions have flared with Kurds in recent days after an IS suicide bombing in the southeastern Turkish city of Suruç on Monday killed 32 people.Kurdish groups held the Turkish government responsible for the blast, saying it had not been aggressive enough in battling IS. On Wednesday, the PKK claimed responsibility for the killing of two Turkish police officers near the Kurdish majority city of Şanlıurfa , near the Syrian border. In other attacks, seven police officers were wounded after suspected PKK militants hurled a small bomb at a police station in the town of Bismil, near the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, the Dogan news agency reported Friday. Assailants also hurled a small bomb at officers inside a police vehicle in the town of Semdinli, near the border with Iraq, the agency said.