Turkey pounds PKK, parliament meets in emergency session

Turkish warplanes on Wednesday pounded targets of PKK militants in northern Iraq, as parliament was to meet in emergency session to debate the government's controversial campaign against Kurdish rebels and jihadists.

Turkey's military campaign -- which the government says was it was forced to carry out after a series of attacks blamed on Daesh jihadists and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants -- has inflamed tensions in Turkey after its inconclusive June elections.

The strikes were initially aimed at IS jihadists but were rapidly expanded to include bombing of camps of PKK militants at their stronghold in the mountains of northern Iraq.

The pro-Kurdish opposition has furiously accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of ordering the air strikes as revenge for its strong performance in June 7 general elections which cost the ruling party its overall majority.

The possibly stormy session of the Turkish parliament is due to get underway at 1200 GMT and include an address by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

- PKK targets hit in Iraq -

Turkish jets overnight launched the latest operation against the militants, hitting PKK camps in northern Iraq, the prime minister's office said in a statement.

"Air operations were conducted throughout the night 28-29 July against the PKK terrorist group inside Turkey and outside," it said in a statement, listing six PKK locations in northern Iraq hit by the war planes.

The PKK targets inside Turkey were in the Sirnak province in the far southeast of the country, reports said.

"The Turkish Republic will continue its rightful fight on legitimate grounds within the framework of national and international law, without succumbing to the threats of terrorist organisations," the statement added.

Erdogan had said Tuesday before leaving on a trip to China that it was "not possible" to carry on with a peace process in the face of the current attacks by the PKK.

Selahattin Demirtas, the leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which won 13 percent of the vote in the June 7 elections, hit back that Erdogan simply wanted to trigger snap elections and score a political revenge over the party.

"Our only crime is to win 13 percent of the vote," Demirtas said, saying one of the main objectives of the campaign was to "harm" the HDP.

The PKK has waged an insurgency for self rule and greater rights in Turkey's southeast since 1984 that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

The parties appeared to be inching towards a final peace deal after a ceasefire was agreed on 2013. But the current fighting has left the prospects of a settlement as far off as ever.

- More unrest in southeast -

The crisis erupted on July 20 when 32 people were killed in a suicide bombing blamed on IS jihadists in a town close to the Syrian border.

Kurdish militants, who accuse Ankara of collaborating with IS, responded by murdering two Turkish police in their sleep and launching a string of deadly attacks against the country's security forces in the mainly Kurdish southeast.

In the latest unrest in the southeastern province of Mardin, police and protesters clashed around the town of Nusaybin when PKK supporters blocked a road and threw Molotov cocktails at the security forces. Turkish media reports said.

PKK militants also abducted a Turkish policeman along with his family while they were travelling on a highway in the Lice district of the Diyarbakir province in the southeast, the official Anatolia news agency reported.

Another policeman was abducted along with his family while travelling in the Mardin region four days ago and there has been no news of him since.

Turkey had earlier this week invoked a rarely-used article of NATO's founding charter to call a meeting of the alliance on its operations and the attacks.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said aftwards that all the allies "stand together in solidarity" with its only majority Muslim member.

But German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday she had told her Turkish counterpart that Berlin backed Ankara in the fight against IS but had "concerns over the intervention against the PKK".

Meanwhile, Turkish police are pressing on with nationwide raids against suspected IS, PKK and Marxist militants across the country, with at least 1,302 people arrested so far, according to the prime minister's office.
Source: AFP