Turkey General Staff said on Sunday it had launched air and artillery attacks against the PKK terrorists in northern Iraq overnight after an insurgent strike on a military base.

19 terrorists killed in airstrike - 11 / 05 / 2008 09:25

Turkish General Staff said on Sunday that Turkish security forces took terrorists, stationed in north of Iraq, out of action.

The General Staff said Turkish tanks and planes had pounded terrorist organization PKK targets in Avasin-Basyan region in north of Iraq as of Saturday evening.

 The attacks, which began after 1500 GMT, targeted a group of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) members who had escaped into Iraq from Turkey after a terrorist attack on a military headquarters that resulted in the deaths of six soldiers. Two soldiers were killed in the initial PKK attack on Friday night and four died later in ensuing clashes with the terrorists.

The military said on its website that it was trying to find out what casualties it had inflicted on the PKK.

A senior Iraqi border security official said there was one air strike and artillery shelling of the border area in northern Iraq overnight. There were no casualties in the attacks that occurred around 2000 GMT on Saturday, he said. The violence was part of a wider military operation, backed by attack helicopters, tanks and artillery, against the PKK in restive and mountainous southeast Turkey.

"All targets were hit and terrorists in the camps were taken out of action," the General Staff said in a statement posted on its web-page.

Among the hit targets, there were terrorists who attacked a military outpost in the southeastern province of Hakkari, the statement said.

In its statement, the General Staff said that Turkish security forces only targeted at the terrorist organization and showed sensitivity not to harm the civilians. "Targets proven to belong to the PKK terrorist organisation in northern Iraq were put under heavy and effective fire by our air force planes with the support of artillery."

The General Staff also reaffirmed its determination to counter terrorism and respond to every heinous attack against the Turkish Republic and its army.

The terrorist organization PKK staged an armed attack on an outpost in the southeastern province of Hakkari on Friday night, and then a clash erupted between the security forces and terrorists. Six security officers lost their lives and two others were wounded in the clash, while Turkish security forces killed 19 terrorists.

Amid widespread public anger over PKK attacks, Turkey has sent tens of thousands of troops to the border region. Over the past week dozens of Turkish F-16 warplanes have launched bombing raids against suspected PKK positions deep inside northern Iraq.

Turkey blames the PKK for the deaths of 40,000 people since 1984, when the group took up arms to fight for a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey.

Ankara, like the European Union and the United States, considers the group a terrorist organisation.