Turkish forces crossed into Iraq yesterday to strike at Kurdish rebels and warplanes pounded their bases in retaliation for the death of 24 soldiers, officials said.
“A large-scale land operation, backed by air strikes, has begun in five separate spots inside Turkey and across the border with 22 battalions,” the Turkish military said in a statement posted on its website.
The 22 battalions comprise commando units as well as gendarmerie and special forces, it added, without specifying how many had entered Iraq. Analysts said a total of 10-15,000 troops would be deployed.
“The air and land operation is under way,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters right after the military announcement.
“The operation is result-oriented,” he said, without elaborating.
The separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), through spokesman Dozdar Hammo, reacted defiantly, saying: “If they want to come, let them come. We will welcome them here.”
Mr Hammo said no Turkish troops had yet crossed the border into northern Iraq, but said Ankara’s jets were flying overhead.
The Turkish air force kept up bombing raids overnight in response to Wednesday’s coordinated attacks by PKK guerrillas on military posts in Turkey, which caused the worst loss of life for the army since 1993, local security sources said.
According to press reports, between 200 and 250 Kurdish rebels entrenched in the mountains of northern Iraq, crossed into Turkey late on Tuesday to carry out raids which left 24 Turkish soldiers dead and 18 wounded.
A military ceremony was held yesterday morning in Van, a city in eastern Turkey 150 kilometres north of Wednesday’s combat zone.
The coffins, draped with the red and white flag of Turkey, were loaded into military aircraft to be taken to their home towns for burial.
President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Erdogan as well as several Cabinet ministers and opposition party leaders attended the funeral in Ankara of one of the fallen soldiers, yesterday.
The latest attacks sparked widespread outrage throughout the country.
Thousands of people, many of them students, visited the mausoleum of Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in Ankara and denounced terrorism.
In Istanbul, some 500 people including members of several trade unions took to street and shouted “Turkey is Turkish and will remain so.”
Unidentified individuals in rage of the attacks assaulted the offices of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) in four different provinces on Wednesday night and yesterday, causing material damage, according to the press office of the party.