by Burak Akinci
ATTENTION - ADDS more from Turkish statement, media report, background ///
ANKARA, Dec 22, 2007 (AFP) - Turkey on Saturday staged new air raids on Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq and more strikes will follow, the Turkish military said.
It was the second air raid aimed at separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) bases in northern Iraq in six days. Turkish troops have also staged a land incursion this week.
"Turkish aircraft attacked between 1:35 pm and 2:00 pm (1125-1200 GMT) major positions of the terrorist organisation" PKK, before Turkish artillery shelled the area for 15 minutes, the military said in a statement on its website.
It gave no details on targets, saying only that more information would be given next week and that the military would carry out more operations despite the winter conditions in the mountainous region.
"It will become well understood how effective the operations against the terrorist operations are," it said. The PKK has "no longer has a chance of success" against the Turkish army.
In northern Iraq, Jabbar Yawar, spokesman for the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga security force, said Turkish warplanes had hit isolated Kurdish villages.
"In the afternoon Turkish warplanes entered northern Iraqi airspace in an area called Al-Amadiyah. Later at around 4:00 pm they bombed Iraqi Kurdish villages. We do not know the extent of damage. But these areas are largely deserted and are along the border with Turkey," Yawar told AFP.
The Turkish television channel NTV said the raids were in the Amadiyah area of northern Iraq.
Actions over recent weeks had left "hundreds of terrorists" dead, it added.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and many other countries, has waged a bloody campaign for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey since 1984. The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.
Turkey has been stepping up pressure since its parliament approved cross-border raids on PKK bases in northern Iraq. Turkish leaders said the Iraqi government and its US backers were not doing enough to halt Kurd rebel attacks in Turkey.
The new raid follows air attacks on December 16 on the Qandil mountains where Ankara says some 3,500 PKK rebels are holed up, using the area as a springboard for attacks on Turkey.
On Tuesday, Turkish troops penetrated into northern Iraq from the southeast Turkish province of Hakkari, the army said. Iraqi officials said about 500 Turkish troops took part in the ground operation.
Ankara has accused Iraqi Kurds, who run an autonomous administration in the north of the country, of tolerating and even supporting the PKK.
The United States fears that Turkey could launch a major cross-border operation and destabilise the relatively peaceful northern part of Iraq.
After a flurry of diplomatic activity, Iraq has promised to rein in the PKK and in November US President George W. Bush said Washington would provide Ankara with information on rebel movements from its satellites.
The US administration said Wednesday that it had been informed about the December 16 raids in advance.
Turkish chief of staff General Yasar Buyukanit said earlier that the United States approved the December 16 air raids by providing "intelligence" and opening Iraqi airspace.
On Tuesday the president of Iraq's Kurdish region, Massud Barzani, refused to meet visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Baghdad in protest at US support for Turkey's strikes, a top Kurdish official said.
Ankara has denied that civilians were hit on December 16, blaming reports of villages being bombed and hospitals and schools destroyed on PKK sympathisers among Iraqi officials seeking to mislead the international community.
The UN refugee agency has said that around 1,800 people fled their homes in Sulaimaniyah and Erbil provinces in northern Iraq following the attacks.
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Turkey-Iraq-Kurds-unrest
