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Turkey: Air strike kills at least 23 in Kurdish village

A pro-Kurdish legislator has claimed that most of the dead were not militants but teenagers making a living by carrying diesel fuel from Iraq into Turkey on donkeys.

TURKEY’S AIR FORCE attacked suspected Kurdish rebel targets along the border with Iraq, killing at least 23 people, many of them believed to be smugglers mistaken for guerrillas, reports and officials said today.

The Turkish military confirmed the Wednesday night raids, but said its jets struck an area of northern Iraq that is frequently used by the rebels to enter Turkey, after drones detected a group approaching Turkey’s border. It said an inquiry has been launched, but did not say whether casualties had occurred.

Turkey’s Dogan news agency said one attack occurred near the Turkish village of Ortasu in Sirnak province near Iraq, where Kurdish rebels are based, and killed more than 20 Turkish people. The report said the raids were launched after drones and thermal cameras located a “crowded group” near Ortasu.

On Thursday morning, video footage provided by the Dogan agency showed mourners, some crying, as they surrounded dozens of bodies that lay side-by-side and wrapped in blankets in the village.

The military said border troops had been placed on alert following intelligence indicating that Kurdish rebels were preparing attacks in retaliation for a series of recent military assaults on the guerrillas. It said drones had detected a group approaching Turkey, apparently at a mountain pass that the rebels have used to smuggle weapons into Turkey, and that the military conducted strikes in areas where the rebels have bases far away from civilian settlements.

Claims that most casualties were innocents

Pro-Kurdish legislator Nazmi Gur said at least 35 people died in Wednesday night’s attacks, most of them teenagers who were carrying diesel fuel from Iraq into Turkey on donkeys or horses. Gur said the diesel trade is often the only livelihood in local villages and that officials would have known that Turkish smugglers would be operating in the area.

Ahmet Deniz, a spokesman for the rebel group, put the number of dead at 28. He said they were among a group of about 50 people who were attacked on their way back to Turkey from Iraq’s self-ruled northern Kurdish region. Most of the survivors were injured, he said.

“Those who were killed yesterday had no links to PKK. They were only smugglers who were on their way back to Turkey from Iraq,” Deniz said, referring to the Kurdish rebel group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.

“We were on our way back when the jets began to bomb us,” the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency quoted one survivor, Servet Encu, as saying. “Five or six took refuge behind some rocks, but the planes bombed those as well. They all died behind the rocks.”

Iraq as a springboard for hit-and-run attacks

Kurdish rebels have long used northern Iraq as a springboard for hit-and-run attacks on Turkish targets in a campaign for autonomy in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast.

This year, Turkey’s air force has launched dozens of air raids on suspected rebel bases and other targets in northern Iraq and along the Turkish side of the mountainous border. Turkish authorities said at least 48 suspected rebels were killed in two offensives backed by air power in southeast Turkey last week.

Recently, the United States deployed four Predator drones to Turkey from Iraq following the American troops’ withdrawal from the country to assist Turkey in its fight against the rebels.

Tens of thousands of people have died in the conflict since rebels took up arms in 1984.

Read: Turkish PM issues first ever apology for killing of 14,000 Kurds>

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    Mute Jim Lingk
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    Feb 4th 2021, 7:55 AM

    Who’d have thought?

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    Mute Ainm
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    Feb 4th 2021, 10:18 AM

    Amazed that the Journal are even covering this as it doesn’t whip up fear about Covid.

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    Mute Damo
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    Feb 4th 2021, 10:24 AM

    @Ainm: yep the article is only up 3 hours and only a handful of comments

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    Mute NJ
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    Feb 4th 2021, 7:31 AM

    Sounds like a qualitative assessment of a situation that needs quantitative data. Too much potential bias in the judgement. I’m not arguing the point, I’m just arguing how it was made. If he wants more resources or for something to change he needs to gather evidence and present it appropriately. If he came on and said I’m now seeing xx% more patients compared to xx then this argument would carry more weight.

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    Mute Will
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    Feb 4th 2021, 8:35 AM

    @NJ: We need the likes of Dr Korpanty on the front line dealing with patients. It’s up to the HSE to research this properly but with everything that’s going on I can’t imagine it’s a priority. Articles like the above might at least start the conversation. It’s not a data driven argument fair enough but he makes some good general points.

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    Mute NJ
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    Feb 4th 2021, 11:22 AM

    @Will: if everyone screamed without evidence resources would be given to those who shout loudest rather than to those who need it most.

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    Mute Kieran Hayes
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    Feb 4th 2021, 10:01 AM

    He should be focusing on Coronavirus only (sarcasm)

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