Turkey vengeful after PKK attack

Turkey has launched air and ground assaults on Kurdish militants in Iraq, vowing “great revenge” after 24 Turkish soldiers were killed in one of the deadliest Kurdish attacks in decades.

Turkish officials said about 100 fighters from the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers Party, mounted simultaneous attacks under cover of darkness on Tuesday night on seven remote army outposts in Hakkari province, on Turkey’s rugged south-eastern border with Iraq.

The PKK, which is fighting for greater Kurdish rights from bases in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, confirmed it carried out the attacks, in which it said five guerrillas died.

The fighting, in which Turkey said it killed 15 militants, threatens wider instability at a time of upheaval in nearby Syria and the imminent withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.

Turkish security sources said commandos pushed up to five miles into Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish fighters, and that aircraft struck targets around a guerrilla camp on the Zab river.

Turkish president Abdullah Gul said: “Those that inflict this pain on us will endure far greater pain; those that think they will weaken our state with these attacks or think they will bring our state into line, they will see that the revenge for these attacks will be very great.”

Twenty-four soldiers were killed and 18 wounded in the surprise attacks, prime minister Tayyip Erdogan said.

The PKK said in a statement: “Our guerrillas carried out simultaneous attacks starting at 1am on regiments in the centre of Cukurca district and at Bilican and surrounding military posts … Nearly 100 soldiers and special forces police have been killed or wounded.”

Masoud Barzani, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan and himself a former leader of guerrillas who fought Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces, condemned the raids as a “criminal act”. He said: “This action is first and foremost against the interests of the people of Kurdistan. We call for an immediate end to these attacks.”

Iraqi Kurdish leaders, among them Iraq’s national president, tread a cautious line between solidarity with Turkish Kurds and enthusiasm for cross-border trade and investment with Iraq’s prosperous northern neighbour.

Iraqi officials in Baghdad say it is difficult for them to control the rugged area where PKK guerrillas have their camps.

Ankara’s recent step-up in attacks on the PKK has fuelled concern in Baghdad that Turkey is pushing its influence south, toward rich oil deposits around the Iraqi city of Kirkuk, just as the US forces which overthrew Saddam prepare to leave.

Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said: “There is no justification for such acts of violence ... Nato allies stand in solidarity in the fight against terrorism.”

Turkey – which has frequently accused Iraq of not doing enough to crack down on PKK bases – has launched air and ground operations across the border several times in the past.

The attacks came after the jailed leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, had said a resumption of peace talks depended on Turkey’s attitude. Ocalan sent a message via his brother after a meeting in his cell, the PKK said in a statement on Tuesday.

Ocalan said: “At this stage, the key is in the hands of state authorities, not ours. Negotiations will continue and everything could change in the coming process if they open the door.”

Mr Erdogan’s AK Party government has passed cultural and political reforms favouring ethnic Kurds aimed at ending a violence fed by Kurdish grievances. Breaking a long-held taboo, it has also held talks with Ocalan.