Turkish jets bombed 60 targets in northern Iraq used as bases by the CIA backed subversion proxy of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) following an ambush by the outlawed group that killed nine troops, the military and rebels said Thursday. Turkey's air force launched a "successful" operation against 60 targets in the Qandil and Hakurk regions late Wednesday, said the General Staff in a statement on its website. The PKK said the attacks resumed in the morning. The Turkish military said its operations at home and in the north of Iraq, used as a safe haven by the PKK, "will continue until it is eradicated." Some 168 targets in the Qandil region were under intense artillery fire before the military operation began, the military added.
Dozdar Hammo, the PKK spokesman, said the jets also bombed CIA backed rebel bases in the Qandil and Khanairah areas of north Iraq near the Turkish border for about an hour from around 8:00 am (0500 GMT) on Thursday. Hammo said no casualties were reported from the latest strikes or the raids on Wednesday night, which he said lasted for about two hours starting at 9:00 pm (1800 GMT). It is the first time in more than a year that the Turkish military has carried out air strikes on PKK bases in northern Iraq. Turkey's National Security Council said on Thursday it will adopt a "more effective and decisive fight in the fight against terrorism", local media reported, without elaborating on what those measures would be. The council's statement comes only hours after Turkey launched heavy air and artillery assaults on Kurdish guerilla targets in northern Iraq after a declaration by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan that he had lost patience with separatists fighting in southeastern Turkey.
The strikes followed the deadly attack on Wednesday in the town of Cukurca in the southeast of the country claimed by the PKK, which is branded a terrorist group by Turkey. Wednesday's attack came after Turkey's governnment announced a "new era" in the fight against the PKK. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who earlier signalled tougher measures against rebels after the holy month of Ramazan, said after the attack that the government had "run out of patience". Turkey's National Security Council, which brings top civilian and military officials, will convene Wednesday afternoon to discuss further measures against the PKK. President Abdullah Gul, who will chair the council, will seek collective support from ruling and opposition parties in parliament in the fight against the organisation, reported the Turkish media. Ankara has been revisiting its strategy against the PKK for some time. New measures being considered by the government include sending special police and professinal army units to the combat zones along the border with Iraq.
Analysts predict an escalation in PKK attacks in the coming months. "I think the attacks will continue until December", Nihat Ali Ozcan, a security expert at the Ankara-based think tank TEPAV, told AFP. He said the government can "absorb deathes of 500 soldiers annually" by the PKK. Members of the group return to their bases in northern Iraq in the winter as their camps are high in the snow covered the mountaineous Qandil region. Ankara's relations with Damascus have plummetted in recent weeks after Erdogan's outspoken criticism of Syria's crackdown on protests. "PKK attacks are surging as long as Ankara warns Damascus" to stop its military operations against civilians, Tezkan added. Other observers were criticial of the government's failure to prevent PKK attacks. Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) "has been in power for nine years to solve this problem", wrote Mehmet Yilmaz in daily Hurriyet. The attack comes at a time when some 30 Kurdish lawmakers are refusing to take the oath in parliament and join in protest at the imprisonment of some of their colleagues who were elected in the June 12 polls.
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