Turkey launches incursion into Iraq

[Stefanie]

http://news.yahoo.com/turkey-launches-incursion-iraq-111917235.html

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish soldiers, air force bombers and helicopter gunships launched an incursion into Iraq on Wednesday, hours after Kurdish rebels killed 24 soldiers and wounded 18 others in multiple attacks along the border.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had launched large-scale operations, including "a hot pursuit within the limits of international law."

He did not elaborate, but added, "We will never bow to any attack from inside or outside Turkey."

Erdogan canceled a visit to Kazakhstan after the attacks as the chief of the military as well as interior and defense ministers rushed to the border area to oversee the anti-rebel offensives.

NTV television, without citing sources, said Turkish troops had gone some 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) into Iraq and helicopters were ferrying commandos across the border.

The incursion for now appears to be limited in scope. Turkey last staged a major ground offensive against Iraq in early 2008.

The new incursion began hours after the rebels, who are fighting for autonomy in Turkey's southeast, staged simultaneous attacks on military outposts and police stations near the border towns of Cukurca and Yuksekova early Wednesday.

The Interior Ministry earlier had said 26 soldiers were killed and 22 others were wounded but the prime minister corrected the casualty figures to 24 dead and 18 wounded without providing an explanation for the discrepancy. It was the deadliest Kurdish rebel attack since 1992, according to a tally by NTV television.

Kurdish rebel group the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, said clashes were taking place in two separate areas close to the mountainous Iraqi-Turkish border.

[divemaster5734]

I can't blame Turkey.

Take a look at the rebels stirring everything up.

Those guys are jerks.