02:TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald

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From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl)
Subject: 02:TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald


told Reuters.

    TRT quoted military spokesmen as saying bombing raids were accompanied by
artillery and mortar fire. ``The initial targets have been reached,'' it
said.

    Turkish troops entered north Iraq before dawn on Monday to root out PKK
guerrilla bases from a zone 40 km (25 miles) wide.

    Iraqi Kurdish groups, in nominal control of the region, say innocent
civilians have been targeted and they have demanded the immediate withdrawal
of Turkish forces.
 REUTER        Transmitted: 95-03-21 05:03:09 EST

Turkish attack on Kurds goes as planned - Ciller

    By Suna Erdem

    ANKARA, March 21 (Reuter) - Turkey is pressing on with a huge
cross-border attack against separatist Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, Prime
Minister Tansu Ciller says.

    Ciller told the nation on Monday the incursion was going as planned in
what her government called the biggest military operation in Turkish history.


    Turkish President Suleyman Demirel said the troops would leave Iraq when
they had ``neutralised'' Kurdish rebel forces, Iranian television reported.

    Turkey, claiming a right of hot pursuit, sent up to 35,000 troops backed
by tanks and jets on a three-pronged attack across the undefended border
aimed at suspected bases of the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

    ``We want to clear out this area and rip out the roots of the (PKK)
terror operations aimed at our innocent people,'' Ciller told reporters,
adding that she had briefed Western leaders, including U.S. President Bill
Clinton, by telephone.

    ``The operation is continuing exactly as planned,'' the prime minister
said on television.

    Demirel has told Iran that Turkey was strongly committed to Iraq's
territorial integrity, according to Iranian Television monitored by the BBC.

    He told Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in a telephone call
that the incursion sought to combat terrorism and establish stability in the
border areas.

    ``Mr Demirel underlined Turkey's strong commitment to the maintenance of
Iraq's territorial integrity and assured our country's president that Turkish
forces would leave Iraqi territory as soon as they have neutralized the
disturbances caused by rebel forces...,'' the television said.

    Rafsanjani said he hoped ``no harm would be inflicted on the innocent
people of Iraq'' in the course of the operation.

    The attack came two days after the PKK ambushed a 40-vehicle convoy
carrying 800 troops in eastern Turkey, killing 18 soldiers and challenging
government claims the rebels were all but finished.

    ``This is the biggest military operation ever (in the history of the
Turkish republic),'' government spokesman Yildirim Aktuna told reporters.

    The assault follows weeks of a gradual build-up in the region and came on
the eve of the Kurdish festival of Nowrouz -- a traditional time of
separatist protest.

    Some military officials in eastern Turkey suggested it was timed to
prevent the entry of rebels to stir unrest during the festival.

    ``The PKK would be wanting to send over men for Nowrouz,'' said an army
official. ``The army would be wanting to stop them.'' In 1992, 45 people were
killed in Nowrouz clashes.

    The operation takes advantage of what Turkish officials call an
``authority vacuum'' in northern Iraq, as fighting between rival Kurdish
factions undermines de facto Kurdish rule there.

    The PKK has fought for a Kurdish state inside Turkey in a campaign that
has killed more than 15,000 people since 1984.

    Most of northern Iraq is controlled by Iraqi Kurd guerrillas who split
from Baghdad after the 1991 Gulf War. Western air cover shields them from
Iraqi government forces, but fighting between Kurdish groups often plunges
the area into chaos.

    Turkish television said no troops had been killed in the operation so
far, but there was no other word on casualties.
REUTER           Transmitted: 95-03-21 06:26:36 EST

Fly Zone Enforcement Resumes Wednesday?

      WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Allied flights designed to protect the Kurds of
northern Iraq, suspended after Turkish forces invaded the area Monday, could
resume Wednesday, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

    State Department spokesman David Johnson said the flights, which operate
out of Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey, had been canceled for a second
day but ``could resume as early as tomorrow''.

    ``We believe the Turks will do everything they can to accelerate the
resumption of these flights, as they have during and after previous
incursions into northern Iraq,'' Johnson told reporters.

    The flights, known as Operation Provide Comfort, are staged by the United
States and its allies to enforce a no-fly zone over northern Iraq to protect
Kurds there against Iraqi air attack. They date from an Iraqi onslaught
against Kurds who rebelled after Iraq's defeat in the Gulf War in 1991.

    Turkey, a NATO ally of the United States, Monday deployed some 35,000
troops in a land and air operation against separatist Turkish Kurds based in
the area.

    Johnson did not say why the flights had been suspended and it was not
clear whether his words meant Turkey planned to scale down its offensive
Wednesday.

    Pentagon spokesman Dennis Boxx said: ``We'll just wait and see what the
duration of the activity in northern Iraq is before we make any decisions.''

    President Clinton told Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller in a telephone
call Monday that Washington would like to resume the flights as soon as
possible.

    Boxx defended Turkey's offensive when asked if the United States was
uncomfortable with attacks on the Kurds while the U.S. air force was
defending them against Baghdad.

    ``Well, these are not the same people,'' Boxx said. ``These are people
certainly viewed by Turkey and much of the world as terrorist
organizations.''

    Boxx said there was no indication Iraq's military would respond to the
raids by Turkey, or that Iraq was taking advantage of the no-fly operations
suspension to reposition military forces.

    Clinton tacitly endorsed the Turkish move Monday, telling Ciller of
Washington's ``understanding for Turkey's need to deal decisively'' with the
rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

    Johnson said Tuesday the Turkish action appeared to conform with
principles of self-defense, which he defined as a country's right to
``protect itself against attacks from a neighboring country, if that
neighboring state is unwilling or unable to prevent the use of its
territories for such attack''.  REUTER    Transmitted: 95-03-21 18:10:50 EST

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