Turkey's airstrikes pound rebel Kurds

Raids in Iraq reopen 30-year wounds

A United States Air Force cargo plane maneuvers on the runway after it landed at the Incirlik Air Base, in the outskirts of the city of Adana, southeastern Turkey, Wednesday, July 29, 2015.
A United States Air Force cargo plane maneuvers on the runway after it landed at the Incirlik Air Base, in the outskirts of the city of Adana, southeastern Turkey, Wednesday, July 29, 2015.

ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkish jets hit Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq overnight, and the government said strikes were to continue until the rebels lay down their arms, despite calls Wednesday by the pro-Kurdish opposition for an immediate end to the violence and the resumption of peace efforts.

Turkey's air raids against the Kurdish rebels, which came at the same time as Turkey began cracking down on the Islamic State, are reigniting a 30-year conflict with the insurgents and leave a 2-year-old, fragile peace process in pieces.

The airstrikes on the Islamic State follow intense U.S. pressure on Turkey to more actively join a coalition against the extremists, but Turkey's actions against the Kurdish rebel group pose a conundrum for President Barack Obama, who is relying heavily on the insurgents as allies in Syria.

In the latest raid, Turkish warplanes pounded about half a dozen positions belonging to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, a government statement said. Locations included the group's mountainous stronghold in Qandil.

Kurdistan Workers' Party spokesman Bakhtyar Dogan said the airstrikes lasted for three hours and caused "a lot of damage." He had no casualty figures.

Turkish warplanes last week began striking Islamic State targets in Syria in response to a suicide bombing claimed by the extremist group in southern Turkey that left 32 people dead, and another Islamic State attack on Turkish forces, which killed a soldier.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party is affiliated with forces battling the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. The Syrian Kurds have been among the most effective ground forces in the fight against the extremist group and have been backed by U.S.-led airstrikes, but Turkey fears a revival of the Kurdish insurgency in pursuit of an independent state.

Selahattin Demirtas, co-chairman of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party, called for the peace process to resume. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, however, rejected the call, saying that would not happen until the party distances itself from the rebels and the Kurdistan Workers' Party withdraws its armed fighters from Turkey's territory.

"We'll respond to their call the day they can condemn PKK terrorism the way they condemn Daesh terrorism," Davutoglu said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. "Until they do that, they are guilty in our eyes and in the eyes of the people."

Turkey and its western allies consider the Kurdistan Workers' Party a terrorist organization.

The rebels have attacked an oil pipeline from Iraq, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said Wednesday, a day after they also attacked a gas pipeline from Iran. Yildiz said authorities immediately cut off the oil flow, minimizing the possible damage and loss.

On Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said his council of ministers views the airstrikes in his country as "a dangerous escalation and a violation of Iraq's sovereignty." Turkey's NATO allies, meeting in an emergency meeting at Turkey's request, proclaimed support for the country's fight against the Islamic State. But a NATO official said members also used the closed-door meeting to call on Turkey not to use excessive force in reaction to attacks, while urging it to continue with peace efforts.

In a separate development Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic said an agreement allowing the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State to launch airstrikes from Incirlik and other Turkish bases has been approved by the Cabinet. Coalition forces could start using the bases "any moment," Bilgic said.

Bilgic insisted that Incirlik's use for possible operations in support of the Syrian Kurdish forces was "not part of the deal."

Turkey's deputy prime minister, Bulent Arinc, said Wednesday that 1,300 people have been rounded up so far in a major police crackdown on extremist groups in Turkey, including 847 Kurdistan Workers' Party suspects and 137 Islamic State suspects. Arinc was speaking at an emergency session of parliament to discuss extremist attacks.

Meanwhile, militants in Iraq used stolen Humvees loaded with explosives to unleash a series of suicide car bombings targeting Iraqi security forces Wednesday, killing at least 18 Iraqi troops, officials said.

Back-to-back suicide bombers rammed their Humvees into Iraqi forces deployed outside the University of Ramadi complex near the Islamic State-held city of Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar, killing at least 12 troops in that attack, two officials said.

The officials -- one with the Iraqi army, the other with the country's elite counterterrorism forces -- also said that eight Iraqi soldiers were wounded in that bombing.

Later Wednesday, another suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden Humvee toward army and paramilitary forces near Fallujah, which lies halfway between the capital, Baghdad, and Ramadi, killing six troops and wounding four others, the officials said.

Iraqi government forces recaptured the Ramadi university, 3 miles south of Ramadi, from Islamic State militants Sunday, as part of their broader offensive. The Islamic State captured Ramadi in mid-May.

Clashes continued southwest of Ramadi, killing one soldier and wounding eight others Wednesday, the officials said, while 14 militants were also killed.

Information for this article was contributed by Desmond Butler of The Associated Press.

A Section on 07/30/2015

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