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Turkey allowed to chase PKK into Iraq

13 October 2010 01:54 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Turkish government is allowed to carry on for another year its fight against Kurdish militants, who it says have been holed up in the Iraqi mountains, APA reports quoting Press TV.

On Tuesday, Turkish lawmakers extended the government’s mandate to continue military attacks on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) hideouts in northern Iraq, AFP reported.

The PKK, which is on the terrorist list of much of the international community, has been fighting Turkey since 1984. Some 45,000 people are estimated to have died since the group launched its armed offensive for an independent state in southeastern Turkey.

The militants launch their attacks from the Qandil Mountains where Israel and Israeli firms also reportedly operate. In June, Sedat Laciner, the head of Turkish think tank International Strategic Research Organization, said Israeli intelligence agents and military retirees had been sighted providing training to PKK militants in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Ankara has been ordering strikes on the group’s lairs, which are said to be housing some 2000 of the group’s members, since December 2007.