Asharq Alawsat (The Middle East), UK
Oct 14 2007

Turkey Shells Iraq Border Areas Amid Incursion Talk

14/10/2007

ARBIL, Iraq (AFP) – Turkish troops have begun shelling areas across
the Iraqi border in the autonomous Kurdish region, an Iraqi officer
said on Sunday, as Ankara prepared to seek MPs’ approval for a ground
incursion.

"The shelling began on Saturday night around 10 pm (1900 GMT)," the
officer told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"It carried on sporadically," he said, adding that the shells had
struck vacant areas without causing any casualties.

A witness said the shells hit around villages in the Al-Amadiyah area
about 15 kilometres (9.5 miles) from the frontier and 50 kilometres
(30 miles) northeast of the town of Dohuk.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that he
was ready to brave international censure should his country decide to
deal ruthlessly with Kurdish rebel bases in Iraq.

A government bill seeking the go-ahead to launch an incursion any
time in the next year is expected to be submitted to parliament after
a cabinet meeting on Monday.

Wahid Kista, 42, who lives in the village of Kista near the
Iraq-Turkey frontier, said by telephone the shelling was targeting
villages in the Metin mountain area "where the PKK (Kurdistan Workers
Party) has bases."

A spokesman for the PKK in Iraq, Abdul Rahman al-Jadershi, confirmed
the shelling but said that reports the rebel group is crossing into
Turkey to launch attacks "are not correct."

"We have not left Kurdistan nor are we hitting Turkish targets from
Kurdistan … The other operations are being carried out by our
members in Turkey," he told AFP by telephone.

"Turkey is deploying forces near the border but we are ready to
respond and have taken positions."

The Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq has warned Turkey
against making good its threat to mount a cross-border incursion.

Iraqi and Turkish officials met in Baghdad on Friday in an attempt to
reduce tensions.

A terse statement from the Iraqi government gave few details of what
Iraqi Defence Minister Abdel Qader Mohammed Jassim and ambassador
Derya Kanbay discussed, but the meeting came after both the European
Union and the United States urged dialogue.

The two men discussed "means of developing relations between the two
friendly countries in the field of combating terror and exchange of
information," the statement said.

Considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the
European Union, the PKK unleashed an independence struggle in Turkey
in 1984 that has killed more than 37,000 people.

Turkey and Iraq signed an accord last month to combat the PKK, but
failed to agree on a clause allowing Turkish troops to engage in "hot
pursuit" against rebels fleeing into Iraqi territory, as they did
regularly in the 1990s.

Ankara charges the PKK has used bases in northern Iraq to launch a
renewed offensive inside Turkey that saw 15 soldiers killed last
week.

Turkey also claims Iraqi Kurds support the PKK with arms and
explosives, which the regional government strongly denies.