Turkey kills 34 Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq

Turkish aircraft and helicopter gunships attacked Kurdish fighter positions on Oct. 24 along the mountainous border area with Iraq. Several F-16 warplanes loaded with bombs took off from an air base in the south-eastern city of Diyarbakir, local media reports said. Earlier, Reuters reported that in the past few days war planes had flown as deep as 13 miles into Iraqi territory and some 300 ground troops advanced about six miles, killing 34 fighters from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers party (PKK). "Further 'hot pursuit' raids into northern Iraq can be expected, though none have taken place so far today," a military official said, adding that all Turkish troops involved in the operations in the past few days were now back in Turkey. Officials said the sorties were small, similar to those conducted in the past across the mountainous border, not the large-scale offensive that US and Iraqi authorities are trying to avert. Turkish troops also shelled suspected Kurdish positions across the border. The reports of small-scale raids into Iraqi Kurdistan came as Turkey's civilian and military leaders met to discuss the scope and duration of a possible large-scale offensive, amid mounting pressure for action. Several newspapers printed pictures of eight missing soldiers, allegedly held hostage by the separatist fighters. Pressure on the Iraqi government to rein in the fighters is causing friction between Baghdad and the PKK, which has criticized the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, for labeling the movement as terrorist. "It's shameful for al-Maliki to call us terrorists while at the same time maintaining that Iraq is a democracy," said a PKK spokesman. "He's giving in to pressure from the Turkish regime. Turkey, which has NATO's second biggest army, has deployed as many as 100,000 troops, backed by tanks, F-16 fighter jets and helicopter gunships, along the border in preparation for a possible large-scale incursion. Turkey's parliament last week approved a military attack, and the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said his country "cannot wait forever" to strike at the PKK.