Sulaimaniyah/Ankara: The rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) threatened on to carry out militant attacks inside Turkey if the Turkish army does not stop its operations in northern Iraq.
"If Turkey continues its attacks we will carry out guerrilla operations in Turkish cities, trying to avoid the civilian population," PKK spokesman Ahmad Danis said. Ankara must "cease its attacks against Iraqi Kurdistan. If not we will move the theatre of combat to the heart of Turkish cities," he added.
Turkish troops were hunting Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq on the third day of a major ground operation on Saturday.
Turkish security sources said troops had killed 11 rebels during intense fighting yesterday, taking the total PKK death toll to at least 55 according to Ankara's estimates.
A spokesman for the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) said that five militants had been wounded and 22 soldiers had died in the clashes. Turkey's army has confirmed the deaths of only five soldiers.
Heavy shelling
According to an officer from the Kurdish region's border guards, speaking on condition of anonymity, Turkish forces yesterday bombed targets in districts around the town of Al Ahmadiyah, 400km north of Baghdad.
"The shelling started at around 6am and continued for two hours. Helicopters were flying over the area," he said, reporting attacks in the districts of Ballo, Zio, Niro Et Rikane.
Al Ahmadiyah is a Kurdish mountain town around 10km south of the Turkish border near Bamerni, where Turkey maintains a military airbase inside Iraqi territory.
Both the Turkish security sources and the pro-rebel Roj TV said that fighting yesterday was intense in the mountainous Zap district of northern Iraq near the border. "The fighting is intense right now, the area of operations is widening," PKK member Ozgur Gabar told Denmark-based Roj TV, adding that the rebels had collected the corpses of 15 soldiers.
US tips off Turkey
Iraq's government has called on Turkey to respect its sovereignty and avoid harming civilians. "We understand completely the size of the threat Turkey faces, but military operations will not solve the PKK crisis," Iraqi government spokesman Ali Al Dabbagh told a news conference.
Washington is sharing intelligence with Nato ally Turkey on PKK movements in Iraq. It has urged Ankara to limit the operation to precise rebel targets and bring it to a swift conclusion.
"Intelligence we have received suggests the so-called leaders [of the rebels inside Iraq] are in a panic and trying to flee the region by moving rapidly to the south," Turkey's military General Staff said in a statement late on Friday.