Turkish War Against ISIS & PKK

[BLACKEAGLE]

Turkey denies bombing of Syrian Kurdish village

A Turkish Air Force C-160D Transall transport aircraft takes off from Incirlik airbase in the southern city of Adana, Turkey, July 26, 2015. (Reuters)

AFP, Beirut
Monday, 27 July 2015

Turkey did not bomb Kurdish YPG positions in a village in northern Syria, a Turkish foreign ministry official said on Monday, denying a claim by the militia group that its positions had been shelled.

The YPG earlier said the Turkish army shelled its positions in a village on the outskirts of the ISIS-held border town of Jarablus and urged Ankara to halt attacks on its forces.

A Turkish government official told AFP earlier on Monday that the Turkish military are not targeting Syrian Kurds.

“The ongoing military operation seeks to neutralize imminent threats to Turkey's national security and continues to target ISIS in Syria and the PKK in Iraq,” the official told AFP, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party.

He said the Syrian Kurdish “PYG, along with others, remains outside the scope of the current military effort.”

In a statement, the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) said Turkish tanks hit its positions and those of allied Arab rebels in the village of Zur Maghar in Aleppo province.

“It is an aggression that should be stopped,” it said.

The “heavy tank fire” wounded four members of the allied rebel force and several villagers, the YPG said.

It said there was a second, later round of shelling against Zur Maghar and another village in the same area.

The Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said: “We are investigating claims that the Turkish military engaged positions held by forces other than ISIS.”

Turkey has launched a two-pronged “anti-terror” cross-border offensive against jihadists and the PKK militants after a wave of violence in the country, pounding their positions with air strikes and artillery.

Early on Monday, Turkish police detained 15 people with suspected links to the ISIS in the Hacibayram district of the capital Ankara, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

Eleven of the 15 detainees were foreigners, Anatolia said, adding that the operation was backed by around 500 police officers who raided several addresses.

The Turkish official told AFP the operations against IS and PKK were continuing, adding that a total of 900 people had been detained so far with links to the IS, PKK and other leftist organizations.

“We are fighting against all terrorist organizations,” said the official.

In a separate development, the Turkish lira fell below 2.76 to the dollar on Monday, its lowest since June 9, with traders citing security concerns.

‘Situation in the Mideast’
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in the Middle East, especially in Syria and Iraq, and better cooperation in fighting ISIS, the Kremlin said late on Sunday.

During a telephone conversation, both sides stressed that all interested states should boost efforts to successfully combat the spread of terrorism and extremism, the Kremlin said in a statement.

NATO called an emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss security at the request of Turkey after a recent suicide bombing there and to discuss Turkish operations against ISIS and PKK Kurdish militants.

Last Update: Monday, 27 July 2015 KSA 12:22 - GMT 09:22
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/07/27/Turkey-shells-Kurdish-held-village-in-Syria.html

 

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U.S., Turkey agree to forge ‘ISIS-free zone’ in Syria

Turkish soldiers stand as smoke billows from the Syrian town of Ayn al-Arab, or Kobani, following the attacks by IS militants as seen from the Turkish side of the border in Suruc, Turkey, Thursday, June 25, 2015. (AP)

By AFP | Addis Ababa
Monday, 27 July 2015

The United States and Turkey have agreed to work together to clear the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) from northern Syria, a senior U.S. official said Monday, according to Agence France-Presse.

“The goal is to establish an ISIS-free zone and ensure greater security and stability along Turkey’s border with Syria,” the official said.

The U.S. official, who asked not to be named, was speaking during a visit to Ethiopia by U.S. President Barack Obama.

The official said that details of the zone "remain to be worked out," but that "any joint military efforts will not include the imposition of a no-fly zone" -- a long standing Turkish demand.

It would however entail Turkey supporting U.S. "partners on the ground" who are fighting against ISIS.

The pledge comes after a week of deadly violence in Turkey that the authorities blamed on both Kurdish PKK separatists and ISIS.

The violence included a suicide attack that killed 32 people and car bomb that killed two Turkish soldiers.

Ankara responded with a wave of attacks on ISIS targets in Syria and Kurdish targets in Iraq.

Kurds living in belt that spans Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran have long advocated independence, something Ankara has roundly rejected.

Publicly, the U.S. has given tacit backing to Turkey’s actions, saying Ankara “has a right to take action related to terrorist targets.”

But there is concern that sustained attacks could cause a rift with Kurdish regional authorities in Iraq, who are a key partner in fighting the Islamic State inside that country.

[With AFP]

Last Update: Monday, 27 July 2015 KSA 17:12 - GMT 14:12
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/07/27/U-S-Turkey-agree-to-forge-ISIS-free-zone-in-Syria.html

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

NATO: Turkey has not asked for help against ISIS

Turkish soldier shares a bottle of water with his comrade as they stand guard near the Mursitpinar border gate in Suruc, bordering with Syrian town of Kobani, Sanliurfa province, Turkey. (File: AP)

By AFP | Oslo
Monday, 27 July 2015

Turkey has not asked for substantial military help from NATO in its campaign against ISIS and Kurdish militants, the alliance’s chief said on Monday, a day before it meets to discuss the fighting.

Jens Stoltenberg also warned Turkey that its bombing campaign could endanger the progress that has been made in recent years toward reaching a peace deal with Kurdish militants.

NATO ambassadors are due to meet on Tuesday at Ankara’s request to discuss the spike of violence between Turkey, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants and Kurdish militants.

“Turkey has a very strong army and very strong security forces. So there has been no request for any substantial NATO military support,” Stoltenberg said in an interview with the BBC.

Turkey bombed ISIS positions in Syria for the first time last week, after a suicide bombing blamed on the militants killed 32 people on the border with the war-torn nation.

It has also bombed positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq for the first time in four years, after the militants, who accuse Ankara of colluding with the Islamists, claimed the killing of two police officers.

While applauding Ankara for joining the fight against the ISIS, the NATO chief cautioned that “self-defense has to be proportionate.”

And in an interview with Norwegian television late Sunday, he warned that Turkey’s strikes on Kurdish militants risked undermining years of tortuous peace talks.

“For years there has been progress to try to find a peaceful political solution. It is important not to renounce that... because force will never solve the conflict in the long term.”

Turkey regards the PKK, which has waged a deadly insurgency in southeast Turkey since 1984, as a terror group and the main Syrian Kurdish group fighting IS -- the Democratic Union Party (PYD) -- as the PKK’s Syrian branch.

Last Update: Monday, 27 July 2015 KSA 15:13 - GMT 12:13
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/07/27/Turkey-has-not-asked-for-NATO-military-help.html

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

His Majesty King Abdullah II receives a phone call from the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

One Turkish police, one civilian killed in attack blamed on PKK

Turkish police officers lift the coffins of two police officers during their funeral on July 23, 2015, in Sanliurfa, after they were found shot dead at their home in the Turkish town of Ceylanpinar on the border with Syria. (AFP)

By AFP | Istanbul
Thursday, 30 July 2015

A Turkish policeman and a civilian have been killed in a gun attack in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast blamed on separatist militants, reports said on Thursday.

Policeman Mehmet Uyar was sitting in front of a tea house in the Cinar district of the southeastern Diyarbakir region late Wednesday when unknown gunmen opened fire from a car, the Anatolia and Dogan news agencies reported.

Both the policeman and one civilian passer-by named as Osman Caran later died of their wounds in hospital overnight, the reports said. Another civilian was wounded.

Both Anatolia and Dogan said that according to their information the attack was carried out by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency against Turkish forces for over three decades.

The killings are the latest in a spike in unrest as Turkey carries out a bombing campaign against targets of the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists in Syria and PKK militants in northern Iraq.

The PKK has largely observed a ceasefire since 2013 but over the last week deadly attacks on the security forces blamed on the militants have occurred almost daily.

Meanwhile, in the town of Cizre in the southeastern Sirnak region one suspected PKK member was killed when militants opened fire on a police post and the security forces opened fire in response, Anatolia said.

Last Update: Thursday, 30 July 2015 KSA 10:00 - GMT 07:00
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2015/07/30/One-Turkish-police-one-civilian-killed-in-attack-blamed-on-PKK.html

 

[Lieutenant]

US-led collation against ISIS should be put under Tutkey commands.

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Three Turkish troops killed in PKK attack, army says

Turkish soldiers pray during the funeral of slain soldier Mehmet Yalcin Nane, killed Thursday by ISIS militants when they attacked a Turkish military outpost at the border with Syria, in the town of Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey, Friday, July 24, 2015. (AP)


By AFP | Ankara
Thursday, 30 July 2015

Three Turkish troops were killed on Thursday when Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants opened fire on their convoy in the southeastern province of Sirnak, the army said.

"As a result of an attack by the Separatist Terror Organisation three of our brave personnel -- one officer, one non-commissioned officer and one private -- were killed," said the army, using its customary phrase for the PKK which it never refers to by name.

The army said that the military convoy was ambushed by PKK members as it was travelling along a road while carrying out a security operation in the Akcay district of Sirnak province, which borders both Syria and Iraq.

"Drones, helicopter gunships and commando units have been despatched to the scene," it said, adding that one "terrorist" had been killed in the clashes and operations were continuing.

The killings are the latest in a spike in unrest as Turkey carries out a bombing campaign against targets of ISIS jihadists in Syria and PKK militants in northern Iraq.

The PKK has largely observed a ceasefire since 2013 but over the last week deadly attacks on the security forces blamed on the militants have occurred almost daily.

Last Update: Thursday, 30 July 2015 KSA 14:47 - GMT 11:47
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/07/30/Three-Turkish-Troops-Killed-in-PKK-Attack-in-Southeast-Army.html

 

[Sinan]

30 Turkish F-16s bomb PKK camps in N.Iraq, 190 terrorists killed

Turkish F-16 warplanes bombarded PKK camps in Northern Iraq on Thursday, striking the camps in Zap, Metina and Haftanin regions in Northern Iraq where the members of the terrorist organization are densely populated.

According to local sources, 30 warplanes departing from the Diyarbakır 8th Main Jet Base conducted heavy airstrikes on PKK camps in the region.

Earlier Thursday PKK killed three Turkish soldiers in the Görmeç and Sislice regions in Turkish territory in which the Turkish army has military bases. After the terror attack which claimed the lives of one commissioned officer and two other soldiers, Turkey has further intensified its fight against PKK terror.

While the operations against the PKK in Küpeli Mountain were being carried out, the military also conducted a cross-border attack with F-16 warplanes and caused severe damage to the terrorist group.

Since the Suruç suicide bombing in southeastern Turkey which claimed 32 lives and injured more than 100, the PKK-affiliated Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and the seperatist terrorist organization PKK has blamed the Turkish government on baseless allegations.

After the suicide bombing, PKK has killed many officers and civilians, totalling 17 with this last attack.

30 Turkish F-16s bomb PKK camps in N.Iraq, 190 terrorists killed - Daily Sabah

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

‘Our only concern is Islam’: Erdogan slams claims of Turkey-ISIS link

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks at a joint media briefing with Indonesia's President Joko Widodo at the presidential palace in Jakarta, Indonesia July 31, 2015. (Reuters)

Staff writer, Al Arabiya News
Friday, 31 July 2015

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday denied common claims that his country was assisting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants, claiming that the group was damaging the reputation of Islam.

“We have only one concern. It is Islam, Islam and Islam,” Erdogan told a thinktank at the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, where he is on a three-day state visit.

“It is impossible for us to accept the overshadowing of Islam. Islam is damaged from what is all being done now,” the Istanbul-based Hurriyet newspaper quoted him as saying.

The president, who is also a cofounder of the ruling Islamic-rooted AK party, said that Turkey would continue its fight against ISIS, a week after Ankara began to launch strikes against the group and Kurdish PKK militants.

The PKK has accused Ankara of collaborating with ISIS, while Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party claims Erdogan is using strikes against the jihadists as “cover” for its main goal of eroding the PKK.

Though not naming the PKK, Erdogan said “dark powers” were spreading misinformation about Turkey, dismissing accusations against Turkey as “ungrounded and unjustified.”

“The footage disclosed to the world by the hand of this organization [ISIS] greatly damages the perception of Islam and Muslims in the world. We all have to defy this as Turkey does,” said Erdogan, adding that the group - who are notorious for publishing gruesome execution online – had no place in Islam.

Turkey had long been reluctant to take action against ISIS militants. Its failure to let U.S. planes use one of its airbases for raids against IS in Syria had caused severe irritation in Washington.

Turkey’s decision to lump ISIS together with Kurdish forces who bitterly oppose the jihadist group has surprised some Western allies, but NATO this week united behind the alliance’s only Muslim member.


Last Update: Friday, 31 July 2015 KSA 17:44 - GMT 14:44
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/07/31/-Our-only-concern-is-Islam-Erdogan-slams-claims-of-Turkey-ISIS-link.html

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Clashes between Turkish police, PKK kill 5

Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants killed three Turkish soldiers, including slain soldier Hamza Yildirim, in an attack on an army battalion in Turkey's southeastern province of Sirnak on Thursday. (Reuters)

By Associated Press | Ankara
Friday, 31 July 2015

Kurdish rebels raided a Turkish police station and fired on railway workers in two separate attacks that left five dead, officials said Friday, amid renewed conflict between the security forces and insurgents that has wrecked the fragile peace process.

Violence has sharply increased in Turkey in the past week, with the government launching aerial strikes against Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, bases in northern Iraq, and the rebels escalating attacks against Turkey's security forces. Some 20 people, most of them soldiers, have died in the renewed violence.

The PKK militants raided the police station in the town of Pozanti, in southern Adana province, late on Thursday, killing two policemen and touching off a gunfight that also killed two rebels, said Gov. Mustafa Buyuk. He said the rebels were armed with automatic rifles and hand grenades.

In the eastern province of Kars, the rebels detonated a bomb they placed on rail tracks and later fired on rail workers sent to repair the line, the region's deputy governor, Adem Unal, told the state-run Anadolu Agency. One of the workers was killed.

Turkey last week conducted air assaults on Islamic State group targets and also opened its air bases for sorties by the U.S.-led coalition fighting the group. But it shifted focus to the PKK following an attack claimed by the rebels that killed two policemen. That is complicating the U.S. war on IS militants, which has relied heavily on Syrian Kurdish fighters affiliated with Turkey's Kurdish rebels.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said Turkey's onslaught against the PKK will continue until its fighters lay down arms, despite calls from Turkey's main pro-Kurdish political party for the resumption of peace efforts - a plea the party's co-chairman renewed on Thursday.

"The dialogue - slow as it was - must resume," Selahattin Demirtas said in televised comments. "Fingers must be removed from the trigger."

Kurdish activists and government critics say Turkey's toughened stance against the PKK is a tactic aimed at strengthening the ruling party and attracting nationalist votes ahead of possible new elections in November. Davutoglu's Justice and Development lost its parliamentary majority in June and has until Aug. 24 to form a coalition government, otherwise new elections will be called.

The PKK, considered a terror organization by Turkey and its western allies, launched its armed campaign for autonomy in Turkey's southeast in 1984. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since then.

The Kurds declared a cease-fire in 2013 as part of the peace efforts, but halted a planned withdrawal of fighters from Turkish territory, accusing the government of not keeping promises.

Last Update: Friday, 31 July 2015 KSA 17:05 - GMT 14:05
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/07/31/Two-Turkish-police-killed-in-gun-attack-blamed-on-PKK.html

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Around ‘260 PKK members killed’ in Turkey air strikes

A missile-loaded Turkish Air Force warplane takes off from the Incirlik Air Base, in the outskirts of the city of Adana, southeastern Turkey, Tuesday, July 28, 2015. (AP)

AFP and AP
Saturday, 1 August 2015

Around 260 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have been killed and hundreds more wounded in Ankara's week-long campaign of air strikes against targets of the group inside Turkey and in northern Iraq, the official Anatolia news agency said Saturday.

Without citing its sources, Anatolia said that among those wounded was Nurettin Demirtas, the brother of the leader of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Selahattin Demirtas.

Ankara has launched a two-pronged "anti-terror" offensive against Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Syria and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants after a wave of attacks inside the country. But so far the bombardments have focused far more on the Kurdish rebels.

In the latest air strikes on Friday, 28 Turkish F-16s destroyed 65 targets of the PKK including shelters and arms depots, it said.

The heaviest air strikes were on Thursday, when 80 Turkish aircraft hit 100 targets of the PKK, Anatolia said.

"Up until now 260 terrorists have been rendered ineffective (killed) and 380-400 terrorists have been identified as injured, including the brother of Selahattin Demirtas, Nurettin Demirtas," Anatolia said. The air strikes are expected to continue, it added.

The Turkish government has so far refused to officially disclose casualty figures, with one official telling AFP that "this is not a soccer game".

But the sheer numbers of planes involved in the daily strikes on the PKK targets in northern Iraq has given an idea of the scale of the operation and raised concern in some Western capitals.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Friday urged Turkey not to "tear down the bridges" that had been built over the last years with its Kurdish minority.

The PKK's insurgency for greater rights and powers for Turkey's Kurdish minority, begun more than 30 years ago, has left tens of thousands dead. The current violence has shattered a ceasefire declared in 2013.

Selahattin Demirtas openly acknowledges that his elder brother Nurettin went to the Kandil Mountain in northern Iraq where the PKK's military headquarters are based.

"I don't even know if he's dead or alive," Selahattin Demirtas told AFP in an interview earlier this week.

Pressing ahead
Meanwhile, Turkey is pressing ahead with airstrikes against Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq amid international calls for restraint.

The state-run Anadolu Agency said as many as 28 F-16 jets raided 65 Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, targets in northern Iraq, including shelters and ammunition depots on Friday. A day earlier, as many as 80 jets hit more than 100 targets, the agency said.

Anadolu claimed some 260 PKK rebels were killed and 400 were wounded since the start of the raids. The PKK has not reported rebel casualties.

Turkey's allies have urged it to resume a Kurdish peace process

Last Update: Saturday, 1 August 2015 KSA 10:47 - GMT 07:47
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/08/01/Around-260-PKK-members-killed-in-Turkey-air-strikes-.html

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Iraqi Kurdistan urges turkey to halt PKK bombardment

In this photo taken on Monday, June 9, 2014. Falah Mustafa, Minister of Foreign Relations of KRG speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in Irbil north of Baghdad, Iraq. (AP)

AFP, Washington
Saturday, 1 August 2015

Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region urged Turkey on Friday to halt its air strikes against PKK guerrilla bases on its territory and called for a negotiated settlement to the conflict.

On a visit to Washington, Kurdistan's head of foreign relations, Falah Mustafa, criticized the PKK for abandoning its ceasefire but said bombarding them was not the answer.

"Of course we do not want our country to be bombarded and we don't believe it will help solve this situation," he told reporters.

"It will only escalate the tension," he warned. "Therefore we urge both sides to go back to the ceasefire."

"Yes, we do not agree with the actions of the PKK recently, but that doesn't mean that the response should be through bombardment."

"We believe that there is no military solution to such kind of problems. The best way forward would be peace and talks."

Mustafa said the Kurdistan Regional Government was already struggling to assist refugees fleeing the so-called Islamic State group, and that new fighting between Turkey and the PKK would not help.

He welcomed Turkey's decision to cooperate more closely with the US-led coalition fighting the IS jihadists, but said its conflict with the PKK guerrillas was another matter.

And he admitted Turkey had not informed his government about the latest cross-border strikes against PKK bases on Iraqi Kurdish territory until after they had begun.

Last Update: Saturday, 1 August 2015 KSA 09:45 - GMT 06:45
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/08/01/Iraqi-Kurdistan-urges-turkey-to-halt-PKK-bombardment-.html

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Iraqi Kurdistan leadership: PKK should leave

Iraqi Kurdish President Massoud Barzani walks as he visits the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces, in Kirkuk July 8, 2015. (Reuters)

AFP, Arbil
Saturday, 1 August 2015

Kurdish rebels of the PKK should move out of Iraqi Kurdistan to prevent Turkish air strikes against them from causing civilian casualties, the region’s leadership said on Saturday.

“The PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) must keep the battlefield away from the Kurdistan region in order for civilians not to become victims of this war,” the office of the region's president Massud Barzani said in a statement.

He also condemned Turkey’s bombardment of Zargala village which he said had left a number of civilians dead a day earlier, and called for all sides to return to the peace process.

“We condemn this bombardment that led to the martyrdom of people from the Kurdistan region and call on Turkey not to bombard civilians again,” he said.

Turkey has repeatedly attacked PKK camps in northern Iraq in the past week in what it says is a response to a series of targeted killings of police officers and soldiers that it has blamed on the Kurdish militant group.

However, the strikes were the first since a peace process with the Kurds was launched in 2012.

Six homes destroyed
Sedar Sitar, an Iraq-based PKK activist, told The Associated Press that Turkish strikes destroyed at least six homes in the town of Zargel early Saturday, killing at least eight civilians and wounding 12.

On Friday, the Kurdish regional government accused the PKK of attacking an oil pipeline in northern Iraq. The Kurdish government had been selling oil directly to Turkey in a move that sparked tensions between the regional government in Irbil and the federal government in Baghdad. Those sales were stopped as part of a deal with Baghdad earlier this year, though the Kurdish government has threatened to resume sales to the international market in recent weeks.

Tensions between Barzani’s Kurdish Democratic Party and the PKK of Abdullah Ocalan in Turkey date back decades.

The two groups were opponents in a 1990s civil war, which ended in an accord that allowed PKK fighters to remain in Iraqi Kurdish territory. The U.S. State Department regards the PKK as a terrorist organization because of its history of violence in Turkey.

(With agencies)

Last Update: Saturday, 1 August 2015 KSA 17:13 - GMT 14:13
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/08/01/Iraqi-Kurdistan-leadership-says-PKK-should-leave-.html

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

 

[Sinan]

Iraqi Kurdistan leadership: PKK should leave

Iraqi Kurdish President Massoud Barzani walks as he visits the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces, in Kirkuk July 8, 2015. (Reuters)

AFP, Arbil
Saturday, 1 August 2015

Kurdish rebels of the PKK should move out of Iraqi Kurdistan to prevent Turkish air strikes against them from causing civilian casualties, the region’s leadership said on Saturday.

“The PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) must keep the battlefield away from the Kurdistan region in order for civilians not to become victims of this war,” the office of the region's president Massud Barzani said in a statement.

He also condemned Turkey’s bombardment of Zargala village which he said had left a number of civilians dead a day earlier, and called for all sides to return to the peace process.

“We condemn this bombardment that led to the martyrdom of people from the Kurdistan region and call on Turkey not to bombard civilians again,” he said.

Turkey has repeatedly attacked PKK camps in northern Iraq in the past week in what it says is a response to a series of targeted killings of police officers and soldiers that it has blamed on the Kurdish militant group.

However, the strikes were the first since a peace process with the Kurds was launched in 2012.

Six homes destroyed
Sedar Sitar, an Iraq-based PKK activist, told The Associated Press that Turkish strikes destroyed at least six homes in the town of Zargel early Saturday, killing at least eight civilians and wounding 12.

On Friday, the Kurdish regional government accused the PKK of attacking an oil pipeline in northern Iraq. The Kurdish government had been selling oil directly to Turkey in a move that sparked tensions between the regional government in Irbil and the federal government in Baghdad. Those sales were stopped as part of a deal with Baghdad earlier this year, though the Kurdish government has threatened to resume sales to the international market in recent weeks.

Tensions between Barzani’s Kurdish Democratic Party and the PKK of Abdullah Ocalan in Turkey date back decades.

The two groups were opponents in a 1990s civil war, which ended in an accord that allowed PKK fighters to remain in Iraqi Kurdish territory. The U.S. State Department regards the PKK as a terrorist organization because of its history of violence in Turkey.

(With agencies)

Last Update: Saturday, 1 August 2015 KSA 17:13 - GMT 14:13
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/08/01/Iraqi-Kurdistan-leadership-says-PKK-should-leave-.html

This is a news that you can't see in the Western Media......as for them Turkey is bombing Kurds.....not a terrorist organization. So, i don't think they will show this news.