KEY POINTS:
SULAIMANIYA, Iraq - Turkish warplanes targeting Kurdish rebels bombed villages deep in northern Iraq overnight, killing one woman and forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes, local officials said.
In Ankara, the Turkish military's General Staff confirmed in a statement its warplanes had attacked targets of the
separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which uses northern Iraq as a base from which to attack security forces inside Turkey.
But the head of the General Staff, General Yasar Buyukanit, quoted by Turkey's Anatolian state news agency, denied any civilian targets were hit and said his forces had acted with the implicit approval of US occupying forces in Iraq.
"In opening Iraqi airspace to this action last night America gave its approval to the action," he said, adding that the PKK fighters could no longer hide from Turkish forces.
A US embassy official, asked to comment on Buyukanit's remarks, said: "We have not approved any decision, it is not for us to approve. However, we were informed before the event (the air strikes)."
Turkish ground forces also shelled areas where the rebels were based, the army statement said. Turkey's NTV television said 50 aircraft had taken part in the three-hour operation.
Pro-separatist Roj TV, quoting PKK sources, said five PKK guerrillas were killed in the overnight bombardment.
The death of the woman was the first reported civilian fatality since Turkey stepped up shelling and air strikes on suspected PKK bases in the Qandil mountains in October.
The mayor of Sankasar town, north of the Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya, Abdullah Ibrahim, said 200 families had fled their homes in villages in the Sankasar and Jarawa administrative areas and at least 10 houses had been destroyed.
Commenting on the air strikes, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan praised the armed forces' action and said his government was determined to use every kind of instrument in the fight against terrorism - diplomatic, political and military.
"We will continue to wage this battle for our nation's unity and peace, both inside and outside Turkey," he said.
The mayors of Jarawa and Sankasar said the air strikes were launched at 2am (12pm NZT) and continued for several hours. The villages targeted are about 100km south of the Turkish border.
The mayors said one woman was killed and at least two people wounded. Fouad Hussein, head of the Kurdistan president's office, confirmed the death and condemned the attack as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty.
In its statement confirming the air strikes, the Turkish General Staff said: "The operations solely target the ... terrorist movement. They are not conducted against people living in northern Iraq or local groups not engaged in enemy activity."
Buyukanit denied the Iraqi Kurdish claims.
"I can categorically state that not a single civilian target, not a single village was hit. Previously identified PKK camps were hit. There is no question of any accident," Anatolian quoted him saying.
The United States, Turkey's Nato ally, has begun sharing intelligence with the Turks about PKK movements inside Iraq. Washington wants to avert a large-scale Turkish ground offensive, fearing this would destabilise the whole region.
Ankara has massed up to 100,000 troops near the mountainous border with northern Iraq, along with tanks and artillery. The Turkish cabinet last month gave a one-year authorisation to its military to conduct cross-border operations against the PKK.
Analysts say a major Turkish land incursion is very unlikely right now, not least because many Kurdish rebels have moved into neighbouring Iran and that weather conditions in northern Iraq are worsening.
Ankara blames the PKK, which seeks a separate Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey, for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people since it began its armed struggle in 1984.
- REUTERS
