Turkey moved against the Kurdish separatist rebels in Northern Iraq today, killing eleven PKK rebels. Two Turks were killed in the action.
Turkey has long threatened to take out the PKK themselves, after it became clear that American promises to “deal with” the rebels wereall talk and no action.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul reiterated a call for the United States to take action against Turkish Kurdish rebel bases across the border in Iraq.
“Of course, we expect international cooperation in this issue,” Gul told private NTV television. “But we know how to deal with our enemy.”
Asked whether Turkey would consider boosting forces in northern Iraq to fight Kurdish rebels, Gul said: “We would do whatever is necessary for our security.”
Turkey already has 1,500 troops backed by tanks and other armor in northern Iraq to monitor rebel actions and prevent cross-border infiltrations.
Gov. Erdogan Gurbuz of Hakkari province said two soldiers and 11 rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK, now known as KONGRA-GEL, were killed in the clashes that began Saturday.
An official speaking on condition of anonymity said over 1,000 Turkish troops have participated in the offensive. The troops, backed by U.S. made helicopters, were chasing the guerrillas near the city of Hakkari, where the borders of Iraq, Iran and Turkey meet.
Turkey is home to an estimated 12 million Kurds. Half of them live in the southeast.
Kurdish rebels had waged a 15-year war for autonomy, in which some 37,000 people were killed. They declared a unilateral cease-fire in 1999 after the capture of their leader, Abdullah Ocalan, but ended it after five years on June 1, saying Turkey had not responded in kind.
Rebels intensified attacks in the southeast after calling off the cease-fire, killing more than 20 Turkish soldiers or police. Turkish troops have killed more than 60 rebels in the same period.
Turkish authorities blamed the rebels for bombings earlier this month of two small hotels and a liquefied petroleum gas plant in Istanbul that killed two people and wounded 11 others.
Turkey has ruled out any dialogue with the rebel group, considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department and the European Union, and vowed to maintain its military drive until all rebels surrendered or are killed.
The US has refrained from moving against the PKK because it will anger the Kurdish population of northern Iraq, the only ethnic group that is pro-American, and in the only region that is even slightly peaceful. Attacks against the occupation and those perceived as collaborators, as well as ethnic clashes in the north have continued relentlessly while the eyes of most of the world were glued to the drama in Najaf.