Turkey launches fresh attacks against PKK rebels inside Iraq, UN, US urge restraint; Sadr asks Mahdi Army militia to extend ceasefire by another 6 months
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    • Turkey attacked PKK positions inside northern Iraq during the week involving nearly 10,000 troops and backed by fighter jets. Reports noted that nearly 80 rebels and over 5 Turkish troops had died in the ongoing operations1. The PKK on its part claimed that over 20 Turkish soldiers had died and that it had also downed an attack helicopter. While Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan asserted that the operation would be ‘limited’, Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshayr Zebari charged that the operation was an ‘escalation’ and asked Turkey to withdraw its troops from Iraqi territory2.

    UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon expressed concern over the developments and called for “utmost restraint, and for respect of the international borders between Iraq and
    Turkey.” The United States again urged both Turkey and Iraq to cooperate in dealing with the PKK threat3. Defence Secretary Robert Gates noted that military attacks will not solve the problem and called on Ankara to take political and economic measures to address the concerns of the Kurds so that the rebels would not be able to draw on popular support4.

    In domestic developments, Moqtada Al Sadr asked his Shiite militia, the Mahdi Army, to extend its ceasefire by another 6 months generating hopes that violence levels would continue to fall. However, sporadic incidents of violence continued to claim lives across the country. 8 Iraqi soldiers and 3 American soldiers were killed in different parts of Baghdad on February 19. A barrage of rockets at the US military base in the capital during the week also claimed over 5 lives. US and Iraqi security forces also accounted for 14 Al Qaeda militants in the city of Samarra, north of Baghdad

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