Turks Bombard Northern Iraq

(AP)  Residents in northern Iraq called for U.S. intervention after officials said artillery and rocket fire struck hillsides near villages in Iraq's border area with Turkey over the weekend.

Iraqi army Col. Hussein Rashid of the border guard forces said Turkish troops fired more than 250 artillery shells and at least 10 missiles on three areas inside Iraqi territory late Saturday. But, he said, the shelling caused no casualties or damages as it hit only abandoned areas in the mountains.

AP Television News footage shot from the village of Inshki, 20 miles from the Turkish border, showed a hillside dotted with balls of fire, terrifying residents below.

"We condemn the Turkish bombardment of Kurdish areas," Salih Kaka Ameen told APTN in Irbil, a city in the Kurdish-controlled north 217 miles north of Baghdad. "We demand that American intervene to put an end to this crisis."

The Turkish military said Saturday that its troops have heavily responded to armed attacks from northern Iraq and will continue to do so but did not give details.

The Turkish government, meanwhile, decided to send a motion to Parliament seeking approval for a military operation against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, a government spokesman said.

The spokesman, Cemil Cicek, said he hoped Parliament would vote on the motion this week - passage is considered likely - but indicated that the government would still prefer a solution to the conflict that did not involve a cross-border offensive.

Cicek said any military operation would target the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, known by its Kurdish acronym PKK. The statement appeared to be aimed at reassuring Iraq's central government as well as Iraqi Kurds, who run their own administration in northern Iraq.

U.S. officials have urged NATO-ally Turkey not to send troops and appealed for a diplomatic solution with Iraq. The Kurdish self-rule region in northern Iraq is one of the country's few relatively stable areas and the Kurds also are a longtime U.S. ally.

A spokesman for the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq declined to comment.

"We are waiting the Turkish parliamentary authorization for a cross-border offensive against Kurdish rebels in Iraq and then we will announce our official stance," Jamal Abdul Rahman said.

During the 1990s, Turkish troops penetrated Iraqi territory several times, sometimes with as many as 50,000 troops. The Turkish forces withdrew, leaving behind about 2,000 soldiers who remain to monitor rebel activities. Ankara rotates the troops there time to time, but it has not sent reinforcements. A tank battalion has been stationed at a former airport at the border town of Bamerni.

The separatist rebels have been fighting the Turkish government since 1984 in a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

[nyoped]

IOWEIGN,
You say
"as many Western sources point to the sheer scale of the death toll as evidence"

Well 5 million Turks died in WW1. Can we use this "sheer" size as evidence?

Wikipedia is easy, Can you find a internatinoal court order to back your claim?

[nyoped]

Oscarez,
Have you ever heard of NATO? Do you think all NATO is a go go bar?

[vet999999]

For all you lefties out there, what section of the constitution delegates world authority to condem? Why is the UN not doing this, that is their job. They are afraid, that is why. This was clearly an action by congress, aka pelosi/reid, to get the armenidan vote without regard to the impact that it may have on the world stage. Now other nations see what will happen if the liberals get into office in 2008 and we will see their reaction.

[serack96]

You guys seem too wrapped up in insulting the opposite political affiliation to effectively discuss world issues.

We begged pleaded and bribed to get Turkey to support our invasion of Iraq by allowing us to invade from the north using their soil. They turned us down, and the main reason is because of their Kurdish separatist issues which are deeply tied to northern Iraq.

I am not surprised they lobbed shells at some abandoned shacks in an attempt to get us to take their national identity and their right to try to keep separatists from waging civil war on them seriously.

But instead of addressing that, you hurl insults at each other.

The world is too big for you people.

[oscarez]

"But since we''''re talking about American allies - let''''s just make it Turkey and Germany for now."

Turkey or our allies? What a joke. Turkey only likes us because we give them billions of dollars in aid and rent on our air bases in Turkey. They are just like bar girls, as long as you have money they are your friend.

[drummer94]

250 artillery rounds. 10 missles., Hit abandoned areas in the hills. No casualities or damage. Um, what the he11 were they shootin at?

[talkingham]

Sned? what are you smoking? I think you''ve got neo-neo up your dark place.

[sendreidpelo]

Oh, and I suppose, given the remarks of NeoNaziCrazy and Bozovet or was that Hitlerite71??? - same person, that you''ll throw Israel in the mix too.

After all, if you don''t, Jimmy Carter might get upset. So will Jim Moran, Pelosi''s drunken john.

And so will the other Hamas symps of MoveOn.Org and Boy Obama - after all, Israel gets lumped in there, courtesy of those fellow Dems Lantos, Waxman, Wexler and the guy who looks like the hapless jerk lawyer on Law and Order SVU, oh, yeah, Charlie Schumer aka Schmucker convienently ignore.

After all, when there''s Neo-Nazis in your own party, (Carter, Byrd, Moran, Sharpton)its best to ignore them and go after Conservative Talk Radio guys.

[sendreidpelo]

Icebozo,

You just stepped on your own butt and you don''t even get it, do you?

Since Lantos and Pelosi were SOOOOOOOOO eager to condemn Turkey, they should have added Germany in there. And while at it, add their friend Ahmedinejedad, add the Khmer government, McBozo''s friends in Hanoi, the Imperial Court of Japan, Putin, and yes, their other friends Kim and Castro in the mix.

But since we''re talking about American allies - let''s just make it Turkey and Germany for now.

Now, doesn''t that make you feel better, bozo? But while you''re at it, you had better drag Lantos'' friend Soros out to the nearest lamppost and hang him and KKK Byrd together. Because Soros was a NAZI collaborator.

Guess you''re going to think about that too, huh boy?

The Democrats - They support the troops - Al Qaeda and Iran''s.

[iceman_1960]

That 09:20 AM was meant sarcastically.

Any time is a good time to condemn SendReidPelo"s genocidal drug cartel buddies in Turkey.

If the Nazi"s were still in power in Germany, no matter how SendReidPelo cried that they were allies in the war on terror, that we should make nice with them to avoid risking U.S. soldiers" lives, that we should appease them, I would still be in favor of condemning them.