23 Aug 2011 (The Daily Star) IRBIL, Iraq: Turkish aircraft bombed north Iraq Monday, the sixth day of a 
bombing campaign against bases of the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the region, a rebel spokesman said, prompting condemnation from the president of Iraq’s Kurdish region.
“Turkish aircraft targeted the Kortek, Qandil and Jabal Mattine regions from midday until 3 p.m. (1200 GMT),” rebel spokesman Ahmad Denis told AFP, referring to areas that are respectively in the provinces of Sulaimaniyah, Irbil and Dohuk, which make up the autonomous Kurdistan region.
Denis said that as of Monday afternoon, no casualties had been reported.
He also said it appears that Turkish forces may be making preparations to enter Iraq, and that the PKK is also preparing for possible ground fighting.
The Monday bombing comes a day after seven people, including women and children, were killed in a Turkish strike on a vehicle in Kortek, according to Hassan Abdullah, the mayor of the Qalat Dizah area.
The president of Iraq’s Kurdish region Monday condemned the shelling and residents of the semiautonomous northern area protested against the attacks.
At least 2,000 people demonstrated late Sunday in the northern town of Rania as the victims were buried, and 300 more marched silently from a bus station to a mosque in mourning Monday, the town’s mayor said.
“Turkish warplanes are shelling some areas of the Kurdistan region and as a result of shelling on Sunday, Aug. 21, 2011, seven civilian citizens were martyred,” Kurdish president Masoud Barzani said in a statement.
“At this time I express my concern toward the martyring of those civilians and condemn [the shelling]. I stress that the killing and harming of civilians is unjustified,” Barzani said. “We demand that such incidents not be repeated.”
Ankara launched the raids against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels Wednesday after increased attacks in southeastern Turkey. The rebels have killed about 40 Turkish security personnel in just over a month.
The raids are the first against rebels in the mountains of northern Iraq in more than a year and are seen as an escalation of the 27-year-old conflict after the collapse of efforts for a negotiated settlement.
Both the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government in Irbil have condemned the attacks but they have gained little notice outside Iraq as the world focuses on the war in Libya and unrest in Syria.
Rania Mayor Barham Ahmad Hama Rasheed said the victims were a family that once lived in his town. He urged the U.N. to intervene to stop the shelling, calling the deaths “calamitous.”
“Among those killed there are three people who were under 18 years old, and there was a 3-month-old infant,” Rasheed said.
“People are angry and upset.”
Kardo Mohammad, a member of the Kurdish parliament, said the shelling constituted a breach of international conventions and agreements between the two countries.
“The Turkish shelling targeted civilians basically, and the proof is the killing of these seven civilians, including children,” Mohammad said. “We do not believe that the planes cannot differentiate between civilian and military, or a child and a fighter carrying a rifle.”
The PKK’s armed struggle for Kurdish self-rule has claimed over 40,000 lives since 1984
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