Turkish warplanes kill two Iraqi civilians, official says

“Two civilians were killed and three more wounded in a village in Rania by a Turkish air strike,” Jabbar Yawar, an official of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), said on Wednesday.

The incident occurred on Tuesday in the remote Qandil Mountains of the Kurdistan region in northern Iraq from where PKK militants launch their attacks across the border in Turkey.

    Clashes between Turkish troops and PKK fighters have intensified in recent months.


The Turkish military has been conducting airstrikes and artillery attacks on PKK positions in northern Iraq since it started a series of air raids on the militants' bases in December 2007 and a weeklong ground operation in February 2008.

On October 2, Iraq demanded that Turkey stop its attacks on PKK fighters in northern Iraq.

“The cabinet decided to reject the presence of any foreign bases or forces on Iraqi land and to reject the entry of any foreign military forces into Iraqi land,” Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.

Dabbagh reiterated that the Turkish military action against the PKK members on Iraqi land “contradicts the principles of good neighborly relations.”

The Iraqi cabinet “recommends that parliament cancel or not extend any treaty signed in the past with any foreign state that allows the presence of foreign forces and military bases on Iraqi land or the entry of these forces,” the Iraqi government spokesman stated.