Wounded Iraqi Kurds say Turks s

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Subject: Re: Wounded Iraqi Kurds say Turks shelled civilians
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Wounded Iraqi Kurds say Turks shelled civilians
By Aliza Marcus

    DOHUK, Iraq, March 26 (Reuter) - Turkish tanks appeared at
early morning in the hills around the Iraqi Kurdish village of
Kashan before launching their attack, resident Anwar Mustafa
said from his hospital bed on Sunday.
    Villagers assured the tank commanders they had no connection
with the Kurdish guerrillas being sought in a Turkish offensive
and yet they still opened fire, he said.
    ``We didn't expect anything like that,'' he told Reuters in
a dimly lit hospital room in the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk.
    ``Earlier that morning we went to the soldiers and told them
there were no rebels in our village and they promised not to do
anything to us,'' Anwar said. They began shooting in the
afternoon, he added.
    One person died and several others were wounded on Thursday
in four hours of tank shelling of Kashan, 15 km (10 miles) from
the Turkish border, doctors said. Anwar, 28, was among the
casualties.
    But Iraqi Kurds and Western aid workers charge at least
seven villages have been damaged by Turkish fire in a drive
against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels based in north
Iraq.
    The offensive has raised concern in the West for the safety
of Iraqi Kurds but Turkey denies harming any civilians at all.
    After the bombardments, Anwar's brother Khalid spoke to
Turkish soldiers as he took the wounded to hospital.
    ``They said they didn't know there were civilians there and
that they were sorry,'' Khalid said. He accused the soldiers of
knowing Kashan was not a military target.
    ``We told them beforehand they could search our village (for
rebels) but they said they didn't want to. We told them there
were only women, children and civilians,'' Khalid said.
    Iraqi Kurdish leaders, who assisted Turkey in a similar
sweep in 1992, condemned the military operation but have not
resisted it. Iraqi Kurds battling Baghdad rely on Turkey for a
lifeline to the outside world.
    International aid workers said development projects in Iraqi
Kurdish villages were being hindered by the assault, involving
35,000 Turkish troops.
    An Iraqi Kurd wounded in the shoulder during a Turkish air
strike on the now-abandoned village of Dergele, was being
treated in the same Dohuk hospital.
    ``We saw the Turkish planes fly over our village two or
three times and then the next time they flew over they dropped
bombs,'' said Ismael Sabri, 55.
    Six houses were badly damaged in that attack on Wednesday.
    Concerned the fighting may engulf refugee Turkish Kurds in
Iraq, the United Nations began evacuating more than 1,000 of
them out of the conflict zone on Sunday.
    They set out in a convoy of 40 trucks and minibuses,
escorted by U.N. guards, to a refugee camp outside the area
declared by Turkish officials as the limit of the operation.
    Most of the refugees orginally spilled across the border
last year to flee fighting between Turkish forces and the PKK.
Some of them said their homes had been attacked by troops.
 REUTER
Reut08:49 03-26

Reuter N:Copyright 1995, Reuters News Service