35 killed in Turkish air strike as smugglers mistaken for rebels
Source: Agencies |
December 30, 2011, Friday
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TURKISH warplanes aiming for suspected Kurdish rebels hiding in Iraq instead killed 35 civilians - most of whom are believed to be cigarette smugglers, a senior official said yesterday.
It was one of the largest one-day civilian death tolls incurred during Turkey's 27-year-old drive against militant Kurds seeking autonomy in the country's southeast.
It also is the latest instance of violence to undermine the Turkish government's efforts to grant cultural and other rights to aggrieved Kurds.
Protesters took to the streets of Istanbul yesterday, denouncing the attack. The Dogan news agency said police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse stone-throwing protesters near the city's main square.
And hundreds of Kurds staged a protest in Yuksekova, in Sirnak province, Dogan reported. Police there also used tear gas and water cannon, the agency said.
Huseyin Celik, a spokesman for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party, said authorities were still trying to identify the dead, but that most were youngsters from an extended family in the mostly Kurdish-populated area that borders Iraq.
"According to the initial information, these people were not terrorists but were engaged in smuggling," Celik said. All of the victims were under the age of 30, some the sons of village guards who have aided Turkish troops in their fight against rebels, he said.
Celik suggested Turkey was ready to compensate the victims. "If there was a mistake, if there was a fault, this will not be covered up, and whatever is necessary will be done," he said.
Earlier, the Turkish military confirmed the Wednesday night raids, saying its jets struck an area of northern Iraq frequently used by rebels to enter Turkey after drones detected a group approaching the often unmarked mountainous border.
Border troops had been placed on alert following intelligence indicating that Kurdish rebels were preparing attacks in retaliation for a series of recent military assaults on the guerrillas, the military said.
It said drones had detected a group approaching Turkey, apparently at a mountain pass that the rebels have used to smuggle weapons into Turkey, and that the military conducted strikes in areas where the rebels have bases far away from civilian settlements.
Pro-Kurdish legislator Nazmi Gur said most of those killed were teenagers who were carrying diesel fuel from Iraq into Turkey on donkeys or horses. He claimed that officials would have known that Turkish smugglers would be operating in the area.
Video footage provided by the Dogan agency yesterday morning showed mourners, some crying, as they surrounded bodies that lay side-by-side and wrapped in blankets in the Turkish village of Ortasu.
Gur's pro-Kurdish party released a statement condemning "the massacre," and Turkey's main opposition party said it was "extremely disturbed" at the reports.
It was one of the largest one-day civilian death tolls incurred during Turkey's 27-year-old drive against militant Kurds seeking autonomy in the country's southeast.
It also is the latest instance of violence to undermine the Turkish government's efforts to grant cultural and other rights to aggrieved Kurds.
Protesters took to the streets of Istanbul yesterday, denouncing the attack. The Dogan news agency said police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse stone-throwing protesters near the city's main square.
And hundreds of Kurds staged a protest in Yuksekova, in Sirnak province, Dogan reported. Police there also used tear gas and water cannon, the agency said.
Huseyin Celik, a spokesman for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party, said authorities were still trying to identify the dead, but that most were youngsters from an extended family in the mostly Kurdish-populated area that borders Iraq.
"According to the initial information, these people were not terrorists but were engaged in smuggling," Celik said. All of the victims were under the age of 30, some the sons of village guards who have aided Turkish troops in their fight against rebels, he said.
Celik suggested Turkey was ready to compensate the victims. "If there was a mistake, if there was a fault, this will not be covered up, and whatever is necessary will be done," he said.
Earlier, the Turkish military confirmed the Wednesday night raids, saying its jets struck an area of northern Iraq frequently used by rebels to enter Turkey after drones detected a group approaching the often unmarked mountainous border.
Border troops had been placed on alert following intelligence indicating that Kurdish rebels were preparing attacks in retaliation for a series of recent military assaults on the guerrillas, the military said.
It said drones had detected a group approaching Turkey, apparently at a mountain pass that the rebels have used to smuggle weapons into Turkey, and that the military conducted strikes in areas where the rebels have bases far away from civilian settlements.
Pro-Kurdish legislator Nazmi Gur said most of those killed were teenagers who were carrying diesel fuel from Iraq into Turkey on donkeys or horses. He claimed that officials would have known that Turkish smugglers would be operating in the area.
Video footage provided by the Dogan agency yesterday morning showed mourners, some crying, as they surrounded bodies that lay side-by-side and wrapped in blankets in the Turkish village of Ortasu.
Gur's pro-Kurdish party released a statement condemning "the massacre," and Turkey's main opposition party said it was "extremely disturbed" at the reports.
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