Turkey: Warplanes kill 35 people mistaken for Kurdish rebels in Iraq raids

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Turkey: Warplanes kill 35 people mistaken for Kurdish rebels in Iraq raids

By Suzan Fraser, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – 30 minutes ago

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkish warplanes mistakenly killed 35 smugglers and other

villagers in an operation targeting Kurdish rebels in Iraq, a senior official

said Thursday, one of the largest one-day civilian death tolls during Turkey's

27-year drive against the guerrillas.

The killings spurred angry demonstrations in Istanbul and several cities in the

mostly Kurdish southeast, and were the latest incident of violence to undermine

the Turkish government's efforts to appease the aggrieved Kurdish minority by

granting it more cultural freedoms.

Huseyin Celik, a spokesman for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling

party, said authorities were still trying to identify the dead, but that most

were youngsters from an extended family in the mostly Kurdish-populated area

that borders Iraq.

All of the victims were under age 30 and some were the sons of village guards

who have aided Turkish troops in their fight against rebels, he said.

" According to the initial information, these people were not terrorists but were

engaged in smuggling, " Celik said, adding that Turkey was ready to compensate

the victims. " If there was a mistake, if there was a fault, this will not be

covered up, and whatever is necessary will be done. "

In Istanbul, police used tear gas and water canons to disperse pro-Kurdish

protesters denouncing the air strikes, the Dogan news agency reported. Dogan

footage showed some demonstrators smashing glass panels at a bus stop and others

throwing stones at a police vehicle near Taksim square, a transit hub adjacent

to shopping and hotel districts. Plainclothes officers hustled or dragged away

several protesters.

Earlier, the Turkish military confirmed the Wednesday night raids, saying its

jets struck an area of northern Iraq frequently used by rebels to enter Turkey

after drones detected a group approaching the often unmarked mountainous border.

Border troops were on alert following intelligence indicating that Kurdish

rebels were preparing attacks in retaliation for recent military assaults on the

guerrillas.

The military 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.

Pro-Kurdish legislator Nazmi Gur said earlier that most of those killed were

teenagers making a living out of smuggling from Iraq into Turkey and claimed

that officials should have known that Turkish smugglers would be operating in

the area.

Video footage provided by Dogan on Thursday morning showed mourners, some

crying, as they surrounded more than a dozen bodies that lay side-by-side and

wrapped in blankets in the Turkish village of Ortasu.

Ahmet Deniz, a spokesman for the rebel group, said earlier that the victims were

among a group of about 50 people 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 the 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. "

Firat said some of the survivors rushed back to Ortasu for help and that its

villagers then transported the bodies back to the village. Some of the bodies

were carried to the village tied to donkeys or to mules, photographs obtained by

The Associated Press showed.

Gur's pro-Kurdish party released a statement condemning " the massacre, " and

Turkey's main opposition party said it was " extremely disturbed " that civilians

were apparently killed in the fight against the PKK.

Hundreds of Kurds staged a protest in the town of Yuksekova, in Sirnak province,

to denounce the raids and call for the resignation of Turkey's interior

minister, Dogan reported. Police used tear gas and water canons to disperse the

group, and some retaliated by throwing stones, the agency said.

Kurds, who make up around 20 per cent of Turkey's 74 million people, have long

felt marginalized in the country and many want autonomy in Kurdish-dominated

southeast Turkey. Since Kurdish rebels took up arms in 1984, tens of thousands

of people have been killed in the conflict with the state.

The rebels have long used northern Iraq as a springboard for hit-and-run attacks

on Turkish targets. 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.

The government also has taken steps toward improving the standing of Kurds,

including by allowing Kurdish-language institutes and private Kurdish courses as

well as Kurdish television broadcasts. But it won't permit lower-level education

in Kurdish.

The European Union, which Turkey is striving to join, has pushed the Turkish

government to grant more rights to the Kurds. But EU countries also have urged

Kurdish lawmakers to distance themselves from the PKK, which is considered a

terrorist group by the United States and the EU.

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Associated Press writer Yahya Barzanji in Sulaimaniyah, Iraq, contributed.