Turkey pounds Kurdish rebel bases in Iraq after Ankara bombing

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: AFP

Turkish warplanes on Monday struck Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq a day after a deadly bomb attack in the capital killed 36 people, the army said.

The fighter jets hit arms depots and shelters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the mountainous Kandil and Kara regions in northern Iraq, the army said, quoted by the state-run Anatolia news agency.

The targets were hit "with precision", it added.

A PKK military spokesman in Iraq said the air raids struck the Kandil mountains north of Arbil and the Mount Kara area, north of Dohuk.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/turkey-pounds-kurdish-rebel-bases-iraq-ankara-bombing-081411325.html

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The thing to remember is that, 4 days before the terrorist bomb, thought to be Kurdish, in Ankara, the Turks were already killing even more Kurds in Iraq:

Turkish airstrikes in Iraq kill 67 PKK militants

Turkey's state-run news agency says the military has carried out air strikes against Kurdish rebel targets across the border in northern Iraq, killing at least 67 militants.

Anadolu Agency, citing unnamed security sources, said Saturday that 14 F-16 and F-4 jets were involved in the March 9 strikes which allegedly destroyed ammunition depots, bunkers and shelters belonging to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

The agency said the offensive targeted five areas in northern Iraq, including the Qandil mountains on the Iraq-Iraq border where the PKK's leadership is based.

- See more at: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/03/12/turkish-airstrikes-iraq-kill-67-pkk-militants.html#sthash.05wBhQwe.dpuf

There may be a ceasefire between non-Islamist factions in Syria, but they're still killing each other in next door countries.

[DetlefK]

1. I don't trust ANY news coming from Turkey right now.

- In the beginning, Erdogan supported ISIS to topple Assad.

- ISIS-recruiters operated openly on turkish campuses. Students who protested against them were faced with threats of massacres on campus.

- Turkey has been suspiciously incompetent in cracking down on oil-smugglers. (How hard can it be to keep trucks from passing your border?)

- Erdogan won the elections in spring 2015, but he didn't win them high enough to his desire, so he sabotaged the government-building-process so new elections had to be scheduled. And... oh, what a coincidence, right before the elections "ISIS" does a massive bombing in the midst of Ankara, hitting political enemies of Erdogan. And he won in a landslide.

- Erdogan just took control of the country's largest newspaper.

[yourpaljoey]

2. Russian Bear is watching

If the Russian Bear gotta tell them twice,
he's gonna do it with a shot-gun

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Vladimir Putin orders withdrawal of Russian troops from Syria

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has declared that he is withdrawing the majority of Russian troops from Syria, saying the intervention had largely achieved its objective.

The news, relayed to the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, personally, followed a meeting in the Kremlin with Putin’s defence and foreign ministers. He said the pullout, reducing an intervention that began at the end of September, is due to start from Tuesday.

Putin’s order came on the day that Syrian peace talks began in earnest in Geneva, and will be seen as a sign that Russia believes it has done enough to protect Assad’s regime from collapse.

The news will be a welcome surprise to the Syrian opposition, who will wait to observe the scale of the withdrawal and whether it means that the repeated Russian airstrikes on their positions will come to an end.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/14/vladimir-putin-orders-withdrawal-russian-troops-syria

[yourpaljoey]

6. Russian Bear

I am guessing Russia has greatly fortified their permanent base in Tartus, Syria;
maintains control of the air space between Turkey and Syria with greatly beefed up anti-aircraft
systems; maintains a considerable advantage as far as number of tactical nukes in the area (I believe they
have referred to the deployment of those as an absolutely viable Plan B).
From a cold start they can have bombers on the Turkish border in ten minutes.

Russia is there at the request of the sovereign nation of Syria.
Putin, I assume, is allowing troops from Iran, and Iraq, as well as Syrian regulars
to replace Russian soldiers in the field.

Russia has replaced the US as the major player in the area.
The Chess Master has entered in.

(I really enjoy your posts.)

[maxsolomon]

3. Did the PKK claim the bomb?

Smells more like Daesh to me.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Not as far as I know, but Turkey is getting pretty specific

The officials told Reuters that evidence had been obtained suggesting that one of the bombers was a woman who joined the PKK in 2013. She was born in 1992 and was from the eastern Turkish city of Kars, they said. A security official later said that a male Turkish citizen with links to the militant group was a second suspect. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack.
...
The suicide bomb attack is the third such assault in the Turkish capital in five months. Last month, a similar blast killed 29 people when a suicide bomber targeted military personnel, blocks away from the scene of Sunday’s attack. The militant group Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) claimed responsibility.

TAK was once linked to the PKK and some Turkish officials and security analysts say it still acts as a militant front of the PKK, but both groups say that the relationship has been severed. Both are considered terrorist organisations by Turkey, the US and the EU.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/14/turkey-ankara-attack-one-bombers-was-pkk-member-officials-say