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A Turkish army helicopter flying over a settlement in southeastern Turkey on Sunday. (Reuters) del.icio.us Digg It!  new Last update - 21:03 21/10/2007 Iraq leader orders Kurdish rebels to disarm after deadly strike By News Agencies Iraq's Kurdish president ordered Kurdish guerrillas Sunday to lay down their arms or leave Iraq after the rebels ambushed a military unit near Turkey's border, killing 12 soldiers and increasing pressure on the Turkish government to stage a cross-border incursion. Hours after the ambush, Turkey fired about 15 artillery shells toward Kurdish villages in the border area in northern Iraq but caused no casualties, an Iraqi army officer said. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani urged the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, to stop their attacks amid fears an incursion would destabilize the relatively peaceful autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Advertisement "We have appealed to the PKK to desist fighting and to transform themselves from military organizations into civilian and political ones. But if they [the PKK] insist on the continuation of fighting, they should leave Kurdistan, Iraq and not create problems here. And they should return to their countries and do there whatever they want, Talabani said at a joint news conference with Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani." The guerilla attack on the Turkish soldiers, one of the worst in more than a decade by rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), came four days after the Ankara parliament backed a motion allowing troops to enter northern Iraq to fight guerillas hiding there. The rebels also claimed to have taken several Turkish soldiers hostage, the pro-Kurdish news agency Firat reported Sunday. The killings have forced Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to call crisis talks that may authorize a cross-border military offensive. The shelling, which began at about 7 A.M., was concentrated in the Mateen mountain range in the Amadiyah area, about 30 kilometers from the border, said Colonel Hussein Rashid of the Iraqi border guard forces. Rashid said the villages had been deserted due to tensions on the Turkish-Iraqi frontier, and no casualties had been reported. The Turkish military said its troops have responded heavily to previous armed attacks from northern Iraq and would continue to do so. Turkey's military General Staff said it had killed 32 Kurdish rebels in an offensive launched in retaliation for the attack, and Iraq reported Turkish shelling toward Kurdish villages in the border area in northern Iraq. The Turkish army said Sunday afternoon that clashes that are continuing between the guerrillas and troops near the Iraqi border. The Turkish General Staff said that 12 soldiers had been killed in the clashes Sunday, but a spokesman for the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said the rebels had killed 16 soldiers. Abdul-Rahman al-Chadarchi of the PKK denied reports that any rebels were killed or wounded, saying the shelling had struck abandoned areas and left only charred trees. The United States, Turkey's NATO ally, and the Baghdad government have urged Ankara to refrain from military action, fearing this could destabilize the most peaceful part of Iraq and possibly the wider region. Erdogan said military and government officials would meet at 8 P.M. under the chairmanship of Turkish President Abdullah Gul to decide how Turkey should respond. "Our parliament has granted us the authority to act and within this framework we will do whatever has to be done," he said at an Istanbul polling station after voting in Sunday's referendum on constitutional changes. In Arbil, Iraq, a Kurdish military official said the Turkish military had fired artillery shells into about 11 areas along the border in Iraq early Sunday, but also said that there were no casualties. Turkey has deployed as many as 100,000 troops along the border to try to stop the PKK rebels crossing from Iraqi bases to stage attacks inside Turkey. Erdogan's government is under pressure from public opinion and the powerful military to take action against the PKK following a series of deadly attacks on Turkish security forces. The death toll among Turkish troops and security personnel has reached around 40 in the past month alone. "We cannot expect Turkey to remain silent in the face of attacks like these," Murat Yetkin, a commentator for the liberal Radikal daily told NTV television. "This attack, coming on a day when Turkey votes in a referendum, is a very clear provocation. It shows the PKK is not interested in democratic initiatives," Yetkin said. Sunday's referendum will decide whether Turkey's future presidents will be elected directly by the people instead of by parliament as well as other changes. Parliament's authorization for cross-border operations is valid for one year. Erdogan has previously signaled military operations are not imminent and Western diplomats in Ankara say Turkey is not keen to send troops into Iraq because of the security and economic risks. Erdogan has said Baghdad must close down the PKK camps in northern Iraq and hand over rebel leaders. Turkey's tougher stance has helped propel global oil prices to historic highs over the past week. The pro-Kurdish Firat news agency quoted one of Turkey's most wanted rebel commanders on Friday as saying the PKK could target oil pipelines if Turkish forces attack them in Iraq. Pipelines carrying Iraqi and Caspian crude cross eastern Turkey. The crisis has exposed serious strains in relations between Washington and Ankara. The United States relies on Turkey for the bulk of its logistical support for its forces operating in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984. The United States and European Union class the PKK as a terrorist organization. In another incident on Sunday, a landmine killed one person and wounded at least eight others in a minibus traveling near to where the soldiers were killed. It was unknown whether those in the minibus were military personnel or civilians Bookmark to del.icio.us Mystery fall Avraham and Carmela Cohen are suspected of being involved in a soldier's murder. Lonely no more Many people hold Lonely Planet responsible for the entire globe becoming a tourist site.   1.   Foreign agents???? 13:48  |  Jeff 21/10/07   2.   Turkey must protect its people 13:50  |  Leona 21/10/07   3.   PKK is a terror group &turkey has to defend its citizens 13:53  |  Michelle 21/10/07   4.   PKK rebels or terrorists 14:00  |  Ugur 21/10/07   5.   Ugur 14:59  |  Yacov 21/10/07   6.   American self-inflicted dilemma 15:03  |  Amazed 21/10/07   7.   To Yacov 15:05  |  Teacher 21/10/07   8.   PKK fights righly for a Kurdish state 15:13  |  Sebastian 21/10/07   9.   Turkish vs Kurdish 15:14  |  Brod 21/10/07   10.   Terrorist not rebels.! 15:24  |  ino 21/10/07   11.   Yacov 15:28  |  Ugur 21/10/07   12.   Schhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... 15:40  |  dovale 21/10/07   13.   A Question to Ugor 15:44  |  dovale 21/10/07   14.   Yacov 15:54  |  Sevim 21/10/07   15.   PKK-Pals ?Indiscriminate Killers? 16:00  |  Gabriel 21/10/07   16.   I love the Turkish people 16:20  |  Tamir Palestine 21/10/07   17.   A Rose is a Rose A Terrorist is a Terrorist 16:33  |  Jane 21/10/07   18.   There are innocent people down there ,,,, 18:12  |  Dutch 21/10/07   19.   Soldiers get killed everyday in Iraq, it`s part of their job 18:18  |  Dutch 21/10/07   20.   For Sebastian 18:30  |  Schuyler 21/10/07   21.   Israel Can Learn From the Aggressive Turks 18:43  |  Dave Levy 21/10/07   22.   Imagine if Hezbollah killed 40 Israeli soldiers 18:47  |  Mike 21/10/07   23.   so Israelis, Hamas is terrorist, PKK is not 19:06  |  mehmet 21/10/07   24.   PKK killed much more civilians than soldiers 19:10  |  mehmet 21/10/07   25.   I support the Kurds; desire for a state f their own 19:35  |  Yonatan 21/10/07   26.   What`s the big deal about soldiers getting killed? 19:38  |  Dutch 21/10/07   27.   #9 Brod: Turks vs Kurds. The real question should be.. 19:49  |  Max Zinger,P.Chimist 21/10/07   28.   re #5 `Ugur` 20:22  |  Colin Wright 21/10/07   29.   To Turkish people 20:28  |  Castroman 21/10/07   30.   mehmet -dana 20:30  |  Danite 21/10/07   31.   PKK are separatists, they are not terrorists 21:34  |  cristo 21/10/07   32.   PKK can`t create soldiers, because they are recorgnized 21:41  |  cristo 21/10/07   33.   Two state solution for Turkey anyone? 21:45  |  Peace Now 21/10/07   34.   Two Wrongs Don`t make a right 22:00  |  Dutch 21/10/07   35.   To Mehmet #16 22:02  |  Dan 21/10/07   36.   dana racist 22:02  |  mehmet 21/10/07   37.   PKK are terrorists, but Turkey paying price for deserting ally 23:25  |  Voice of Reason 21/10/07   38.   Mehmet, good that Turkey has joined "coalition of willing" 23:27  |  Voice of Reason 21/10/07   39.   Mehmet living in occupied Constantinople (Istanbul) 02:53  |  Genuine Tosefta 24/10/07   40.   Turkish reprisal attacks will create more Kurdish martyrs 02:56  |  Genuine Tosefta 24/10/07   41.   # 12 get real, dovale; there`s no comparison 06:45  |  eric 24/10/07   42.   #25 Yonatan 11:51  |  Joshua 24/10/07   43.   #29 Castroman 11:55  |  Joshua 24/10/07   44.   #34 Dutch 11:57  |  Joshua 24/10/07

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