Iraq summoned Turkey's ambassador to demand an immediate end to Ankara's air strikes against Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq, a foreign ministry statement viewed on Thursday said. The formal protest was made on Wednesday by foreign ministry Under-secretary Mohammed Jawad al-Dorki in a meeting with Turkish envoy Murat Ozcelik.
Dorki "apprised him (Ozcelik) with the Iraqi government's protest against violation of Iraq's sovereignty, bombing the border areas and targeting innocent civilians, demanding the immediate suspension of these operations," the statement said. "The ambassador was handed a protest note on this regard," it added. The Turkish military said on Tuesday its air attacks had killed between 90 and 100 Kurdish rebels and injured another 80, but a spokesman for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said just three of its fighters had died.
On Sunday, however, a Turkish air strike in Sulaimaniyah province in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region killed an Iraqi family of seven, according to Jabbar Yawar, a top Iraqi Kurdish official. Ankara's renewed campaign followed a PKK attack that killed nine security personnel in south-east Turkey.
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