[NYTr] Kurds From Iraq Kill 17 Soldiers in Turkey: US kills 49 Civilians

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

The Washington Post - Oct 22, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/22/AR2007102200397_pf.html

Kurds From Iraq Kill 17 Soldiers in Turkey

U.S. Reports 49 Fighters Dead in Sadr City Raid; 
Residents, Officials Say Victims Are All Civilians

By Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Foreign Service

BAGHDAD, Oct. 22 -- An audacious cross-border ambush by Kurdish rebels
based in northern Iraq killed at least 17 Turkish soldiers Sunday,
ratcheting up pressure on the Turkish government to launch a military
offensive into Iraq. The Turkish military said Monday that eight of its
soldiers were also missing after the raid, as scattered protests broke
out around the country among groups demanding retaliation.

The pre-dawn attack took place as the U.S. military said its troops
killed 49 fighters in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood, one of the
highest death tolls for a military operation since President Bush
declared an end to active combat in 2003.

But Iraqi officials and residents of the vast Shiite enclave, loyal to
powerful anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, said 13 people were
killed and all of the victims were innocent civilians, including
children. They warned that the attack could lead Sadr to rescind a
suspension of his militia's operations.

The unrelated spasms of violence on two fronts illustrated the highly
combustible geopolitical and domestic challenges confounding the U.S.
military, even as a temporary troop increase has succeeded in tamping
down some of the violence in Iraq.

The raid on Turkish soldiers, among the deadliest attacks in recent
memory, was carried out by the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known by its
Kurdish initials PKK. The armed group aims to create an independent
Kurdish state out of parts of eastern Turkey, northern Iraq and western
Iran.

Turkish officials said 16 soldiers were also wounded in the fighting in
Hakkari province, which borders Iraq. Thirty-two Kurdish fighters were
killed in subsequent clashes. Abdul Rahman al-Chaderchi, a PKK
spokesman, said the Kurdish fighters attacked because Turkish troops
were conducting war games late Saturday near the border. He said that
the death toll was higher than Turkey reported and that several
soldiers were being held prisoner, but he declined to provide precise
numbers.

"They tried to enter the Iraqi lands," Chaderchi said. "But our
fighters have confronted them."

Senior Turkish military and government officials held emergency
meetings Sunday night to decide on a response. Turkey's parliament
voted last week to give Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's
government authority for a military offensive into northern Iraq to
pursue Kurdish fighters hiding there.

"Turkey does not have designs on Iraq's territory," Turkish President
Abdullah Gul said after the attacks, according to the Anatolian news
agency. "However, if Iraq keeps harboring terrorists, Turkey has the
right to destroy this."

Erdogan said he had spoken with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice on Sunday night, and that she had requested Turkey not respond for
at least a few days, the Associated Press reported. Erdogan said he
told her that Turkey expected "speedy steps from the U.S." against the
PKK presence in Iraq.

Separately, Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul met in Kiev with U.S.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and indicated afterwards that Turkey
was not planning any imminent response to Sunday's raid, Reuters
reported.

AP reports from the region said that a convoy of around 50 Turkish
military vehicles was moving closer to the Iraqi border on Monday.
Turkish papers struck a militaristic tone, and knots of demonstrators
gathered to call for action, wires services reported.

At a news conference hours after the ambush, Iraqi President Jalal
Talabani, who is Kurdish, ordered the guerrilla fighters to stop their
attacks or leave Iraq. "We are against all the actions that are done by
the PKK," he said. "And we will not support the PKK. We want the best
relations with Turkey."

But he added: "The Turkish army with all its capabilities couldn't
arrest the leaders of the PKK. So how could we do that? It's a dream
that cannot be reached."

Turkey continued to shell the area along the northern Iraqi border late
Sunday, residents and officials said. Some villagers reported that the
pesh merga, the military force of the Kurdish regional government in
northern Iraq, was moving toward the border.

The Bush administration condemned the Kurdish assault. "These attacks
are unacceptable and must stop now," said Gordon Johndroe, President
Bush's national security spokesman.

Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish regional government, also
condemned the attack but warned against a Turkish offensive into
northern Iraq. "If this struggle touches the Kurdistan region, then we
will defend our citizens," he said.

Iraqi residents of the border area braced for more of the violence that
has destroyed parts of their villages and forced some of them to flee.
Sabiha Khalil, 54, a widowed farmer from the village of Spindar, said
the fighting reminded her of the days of Saddam Hussein, when a
government campaign killed as many as 180,000 Kurds and drove many more
from their homes.

"Now Turkey is taking Saddam Hussein's place," she said. "We were
displaced from our village for 10 years, but we have rebuilt our homes
and rehabilitated our farms. Now where should we go?

Suleiman Hamid, 33, a farmer who also lives in Spindar, said shelling
on Sunday destroyed several houses and caused his children to wake up
screaming. Many of his neighbors have fled, he said.

"I don't understand why the Turks are bombing us," he said. "There is
no PKK here. Is their main goal to target the PKK, or just any Kurds?"

In Baghdad, the U.S. military and local residents offered different
accounts of the raid into the heavily Shiite enclave of Sadr City,
named for the father of Moqtada al-Sadr and a stronghold of his
followers.

According to the military, U.S. troops entered the neighborhood at 4
a.m. to target a militia chief responsible for an extensive
Iranian-backed kidnapping ring. His name was not released.

Gunmen then began firing automatic weapons and rocket-propelled
grenades at the U.S. troops, the military said. It said ground forces
returned fire, killing 33 fighters, then called in helicopter gunships,
which killed six more.

As U.S. soldiers left the neighborhood at 7 a.m., they struck a
roadside bomb but continued returning fire, killing 10 more, the
military said. The target of the raid was not captured, and no U.S.
troops were injured, military officials said.

But Sadr City residents and Iraqi officials said the only victims were
civilians -- whom they described as 13 dead and 52 injured.

"I have seen the dead children," said Abu Zahara, an official in the
local Sadr office. "We are a peaceful people. We are just sitting in
our homes. We don't want anything to do with the Americans. Just leave
us alone."

He said among the dead were a woman and four children, including a
4-year-old girl and a 2-year-old boy. Their 1-year-old brother was
seriously wounded, he said.

"Why are the American soldiers fighting women and children?" said Abu
Hawra, a local religious leader. "The American occupation forces
started bombing the city for no reason."

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that the government would
investigate the raid and that coordination between U.S. and Iraqi
forces was necessary to prevent such "woeful incidents."

Salah al-Obeidi, a spokesman for Sadr in the Shiite holy city of Najaf,
called the raid a "barbaric action" and a "crime" that should lead to
criminal charges. He said no one in Sadr City attacked the Americans
because Sadr in August had ordered his powerful militia, the Mahdi
Army, to stop all fighting for six months.

Obeidi said Sadr's order remained in effect. But several of his
followers in Sadr City said they expected the attack to increase
pressure on him to lift the order.

Mohammed Chaloub, 38, who works in the Interior Ministry, said he
watched the raid from his roof and saw the damage it left: a bombed-out
primary school, several destroyed shops and 18 burned cars. U.S.
gunfire prevented firefighting vehicles from reaching the area, he said.

He said Sadr City residents were furious at the U.S. troops. "If you
woke up in the morning and saw your entire family killed and your house
burned out, what would your reaction be?" he said. "Nobody would accept
that."

[Staff writer Robin Wright in Washington and special correspondents
Dlovan Brwari in Dahuk, Saad Sarhan in Najaf, Zaid Sabah and Dalya
Hassan in Baghdad, and other Washington Post staff in Iraq contributed
to this report.]

© 2007 The Washington Post