Published: February 27, 2008
BAGHDAD The Iraqi government on Tuesday condemned Turkey's incursion into northern Iraq and demanded that withdraw its troops as fighting continued for a sixth day between Turkish forces and Kurdish rebels.
"The council expresses its rejection and condemnation to the Turkish military incursion which is considered a violation to the Iraqi sovereignty," the Iraqi cabinet said in a statement. "The cabinet stresses that unilateral military action is not acceptable and threatens good relations between the two neighbors."
The semiautonomous Kurdistan Regional Government also condemned the incursions during a special session on Tuesday.
"The Turkish incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan is a violation of Iraqi sovereignty," said Falah Mustafa, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government's Department of Foreign Relations in an interview on Tuesday.
Turkish television showed troops slogging through heavy snows in Kurdistan's rugged mountains. Turkish and sources for the rebel group, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or P.K.K., have offered widely divergent casualty figures. Turkey has reported killing more than 150 rebels while confirming 19 deaths of Turkish soldiers. The P.K.K. claims to have lost only a handful of fighters while killing 81 Turkish soldiers.
The P.K.K. demands autonomy for Kurds in southern Turkey and has been launching attacks on Turkey soil from Kurdish bases is Turkey and northern Iraq since 1984. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict.
In an interview today, a P.K.K. spokesman expressed confidence that the rebels had the backing of the Kurdish regional government, which has repeatedly demanded the removal of Turkish troops. But the spokesman, Ahmad Danes, said the rebel group felt betrayed by the United States, which has said Turkey alerted it to the incursion beforehand. He said that the Kurdish rebels kept the mountainous north of Iraq free of insurgent terrorists.
"The U.S.A. must not stand against Kurdish rights," he said.
In other violence in the north, an explosion aboard a crowded bus traveling to the Syrian border from Mosul killed at least nine passengers on Tuesday morning, according to Iraqi officials.
There was confusion about the source of the attack. Military officials said a passenger detonated a suicide vest aboard the bus, while employees at the bus company disputed that and attributed the explosion to a roadside bomb.
The attack took place about 500 yards from an Iraqi Army checkpoint in the town of Tmerat, 50 miles west of Mosul, where scores of recruits routinely gather at an Iraqi Army base, according to a military official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The bomber was probably trying to attack them, he said, and the bomb may have exploded prematurely.
United States military pressure coupled with the alignment of some Sunni tribes against the insurgency and a cease-fire by Shiite militias in southern and central Iraq has pushed remaining insurgents north to Mosul, United States and Iraqi officials say. The city has been the scene of fierce fighting in recent months, and the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal el-Maliki promised a "decisive battle" with insurgents there after dozens of people were killed in an explosion a month ago when Iraqi soldiers entered a booby-trapped building.
In other violence, a Mosul policeman was killed and two others wounded by a car bomb, according to Iraqi police sources.
In Kirkuk, district police said two Awakening Council members were killed in an attack by unidentified gunmen. The police also confirmed that two civilians were killed by a roadside bomb. And an Iraqi security forces source said an Iraqi army major was killed in clashes with Al Qaeda elements.
In Tuz , Lt. Col. Abdullah al Bayati said attackers killed one soldier and kidnapped one of his relatives.
The American military issued a statement confirming that it killed seven insurgents in a clash near Khan Bani Sa'ad in Diyala Province.
Balen Y. Younis contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Mosul and Sulaimaniya.
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