Turkey denies troops entered Iraq but tough on Kurds

Turkey denies troops entered Iraq but tough on Kurds
26 Apr 2006 14:54:33 GMT

Source: Reuters

ANKARA, April 26 (Reuters) - Turkey denied on Wednesday a news report that its troops had crossed into northern Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish militants, but it also said the new government in Baghdad must help crack down on the rebels.

Around 3,000 members of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) are believed to be hiding in the mountains of mainly Kurdish northern Iraq, from where they slip across the border to attack Turkish security forces.

The head of Turkey's military General Staff, General Hilmi Ozkok, reaffirmed last Sunday Turkey's right under international law to carry out cross-border operations to root out the militants if that was deemed necessary.

"At the present time, there is no hot pursuit (of rebels) beyond our borders," a Turkish official told Reuters, denying a report in the Bugun newspaper that Turkish special forces had spent several days inside Iraq and that Baghdad had complained.
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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L26705090.htm

By SELCAN HACAOGLU, Associated Press Writer
13 minutes ago

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060427/ap_on_re_mi_ea/turkey_kurds


ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey has deployed more than 30,000 additional troops in its predominantly Kurdish southeast and along its rugged border with Iraq and Iran to fight Kurdish guerrillas and stop them from coming across the frontier, officials said Thursday.

Kurdish rebels killed two Turkish soldiers and injured a third in a grenade attack Wednesday on a military outpost, the Anatolia news agency reported, raising the number of Turkish troops killed this year to at least 17. More than 40 Kurdish guerrillas have also been killed in the same period in a series of clashes.

The Turkish deployment, which has been going on for several weeks, boosts an already large garrison in the region that by some estimates tops 250,000 soldiers.

Guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, have bases in northern Iraq but also have substantial forces in the mountains of southeastern Turkey. They typically step up their attacks in the spring, when winter snow melts, clearing mountain passes in the region. Turkey often increases its military activities in response.

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