Turkey Strikes Kurds in Iraq

Turkey is fed up with the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), and the military confirmed yesterday that its jets had crossed into Iraq to strike suspected rebels. Turkish jets struck an estimated 60 members of the rebel group, in attacks both near the Turkish border and along the Iraq-Iran border, according to the AP. The military said it had used "the necessary sensitivity" to avoid harming civilians.

The attack was a retaliation for a PKK raid near the border that killed eight soldiers and a village guard. Close to 40 Turkish soldiers have been killed in such attacks, and the military made it clear that yesterday's attack was part of a larger campaign against the rebels. "The Turkish Armed Forces will continue with similar actions ... with determination," it said, "until the north of Iraq becomes a secure, livable area and the separatist organization which uses it as a base for attacks on Turkey is rendered ineffective." (More Kurdistan Workers' Party stories.)