Turkish Military
Operation Failed: Guerrilla Leader
SULAIMANI, March 1, 2008 (AFP) - The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader
said Turkey had failed to achieve its aims with its military operation against
his guerrillas in Iraqi Kurdistan, in a telephone interview on Saturday.
Ankara "wants to control a big part of Kurdistan to use as a base to attack
cities in Iraqi Kurdistan", PKK leader Murat Karayilan told AFP from his hideout
in the remote Qandil mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan.
"That was Turkey's goal, but it could not fulfill it because of the resistance
by the PKK fighters. Their operation against our strongholds failed," he said.
Turkey "attacked our forces on three fronts in the Zap region, but failed to
achieve their goals even though the Turkish army has advanced technology and jet
fighters that flew over the combat zone and bombed us non-stop".
According to Karayilan, Turkey launched the military operation with the goal of
crippling the PKK but also to weaken Iraqi Kurdistan and "prevent the return of
Kirkuk to Kurdistan".
The Turkish attacks were "against all Kurds, not just the PKK," he said.
The contested oil-rich Iraqi city of Kirkuk has a large Kurdish population, but
has never been part of the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government.
In the 1980s, President Saddam Hussein sought to change the ethnic composition
of the city by moving Arabs into the area.
The Turkish military said the offensive dealt a serious blow to the Turkish
Kurdish rebel group, with at least 240 militants killed and dozens of hideouts,
training camps and ammunition depots destroyed.
Karayilan said the PKK had killed 130 Turkish soldiers and suffered five only
casualties of its own.
