Written by Ominous considering the pullout at the end of 2011.
“ISTANBUL — Turkish tanks entered northern Iraq and were heading towards a Kurdish militant camp, Turkish media reported Tuesday.
The army’s incursion is part of the reaction to last week’s series of attacks by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in which 24 Turkish soldiers and policemen were killed in the border province of Hakkari.
Turkey responded with air raids on PKK camps in northern Iraq, which it uses as bases to attack Turkey.
The target of the latest operation was a PKK camp in Haftanin, around 20 kilometres over the border.
The incursion is being denied by an Iraq border official and also the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, the rebel group operating out Iraq’s Kurdish region and is the target of Turkish forces, Agence France Presse reported.
According to Iraqi Col. Hussein Tamer, head of the border guards for Dohuk province in north Iraq along the border with Turkey, the Turks have not entered the region.
“There has been no Turkish incursion by soldiers or Turkish forces onto Iraqi soil,” he told AFP.
Ahmed Denis, a PKK spokesman, also denied the attacks, telling the news agency that “Turkish forces have not entered Kurdistan’s soil.”
But Turkish security sources said that some 20 tanks and 30 military trucks had entered Iraq from Siyahkaya village, and Turkish warplanes bombed the Haftanin region.
They also said Turkish troops were sent by helicopter to Zab, and were aiming to enter Sinaht, which is close to Haftanin.
The PKK has been fighting for independence or greater autonomy for Kurdish regions since the 1980s. Around 45,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
The group is classed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.”
